Future Sight
by NightWild7000
Summary: It has been four years since the war of Twilight. Buffy, Willow and Buffy's kids now live in the ruins of New York under the rule of 'the Vampire King'. Just when Buffy and Willow thought life could not get any worse, it suddenly does.
1. Prologue: The Dream

**A/N: The Buffyverse is not mine, it is of Joss Whedon, I'm just a fan.**

**The story takes place 4 years after the events of season 8. (everything up to #37). I have drawn some theories from the now released covers of #38 and #39. This story is based on those theories. (What the theories are will be made clear in the story).**

**As soon as season 8 contradicts what I write you can consider this AU.**

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_**Part 1: The Vampire King**_

**Prologue: The Dream**

_In a graveyard a blonde woman was patrolling. In her hands she held a red ax which had a wooden stake embodied at it's handle. A woman with black hair and black eyes approached the blonde woman, you could easily see some veins on the face of the black haired woman. The black haired woman said "It is not who dies, it is who kills them", just before the blonde woman drove the wooden end of the ax straight trough the black haired woman's hearth. Just before the black haired woman died her hair turned red, and her eyes turned green and whispered "Buffy?"._

_Behind Buffy a man with short black hair stood laughing, one of his most prominent futures was a black eye patch over his left eye, and a suit that would have come straight out of the comics for Nick Fury. Buffy did not hesitate and threw a wooden stake towards the eye patch clad men which impaired his hearth, the eye patch clad men turned to dust, still laughing._

Buffy woke with a start and looked at her alarm clock which said 3:00 AM. After a while she went back to sleep, she did not have any other dreams that night.


	2. Living in Ruins

**Chapter 1: Living in Ruins**  
_20th of September 2010, 8:00 AM, 140th avenue, Queens, New York_

Willow Rosenberg was sitting at the breakfast table and read the local newspaper, The sound of the television came from the living room, where a blonde boy and a black haired girl where watching cartoons. Samuel 'Sam' Summers and Katherine 'Kate' Summers where not your average kids. Both of them seemed to have inherited their mothers strength. That the father, who was a vampire with a soul was also highly unusual. Though Willow had not heard anything from LA for some years now, she doubted Angel would just leave them alone. But she had better not mention this to Buffy, Angel's name was acid in the Summers household these days. Willow could not blame her, what after the Twilight fiasco... _No rather not go there again_.

After a while Buffy Summers came down the stairs and went straight for the coffee. Buffy looked like she was still asleep.

"You look awake" Willow joked at Buffy, Willow got an annoyed look as answer. "What's the problem?" Willow asked.

"O, sorry, just a nightmare" Buffy answered.

"Of the Prophetic kind?" Willow was getting interested, since it might mean that there finally might be some action.

"I don't want to talk about it" Buffy shot back. Typical Willow thought.

"Well, it would be a shame if your dream prophesied an apocalypse and we missed it due to you not telling me the details." Willow said. Buffy's reaction was one of venom and Willow was afraid that she had just went to far. But Buffy surprised her by looking down and explaining her dream.

"I was patrolling in a graveyard, when you approached me Will, all black haired and vein y. You said 'It is not who dies, it is who kills them' right before I stabbed you with the scythe". Willow sighed, _been there, done that_ she thought.

"That is nothing new" Willow said, "You did that to me already in the future.". At that Buffy quickly looked away as if she was ashamed.

"That was not all Will, you turned into your normal red-haired self after wards, still dying." Buffy said. Still Willow was not concerned, Buffy never mentioned whether Willow had stayed black haired or went red-haired in the future after her death.

"Still does not mean anything" Willow said. "Except maybe some leftover guilt". Now Buffy looked directly at Willow and Willow saw the fear in her eyes.

"Xander was there too" Buffy said. At this Willow nearly choked on her coffee. They did not talk much about Xander since he had been buried beneath the Hell mouth "He laughed and I threw a stake at him, he dusted." Buffy continued. At this point Willow did choke _dusted?_ It was not the fact that Buffy had killed Xander in her dream, that could be chalked away at guilt again, but dusted?

"Dusted?" Willow asked, "As in vampire dusted, or as in cremated dusted?". Willow asked dreading the answer.

"Vampire dusted" Buffy answered. Willow shook her head _Impossible_ Willow herself had witnessed Xander falling down the Hell mouth and said Hell mouth collapsing on top of him, there was no way he could have become a vampire after that.

"Impossible" Willow exclaimed, "we saw him fall and get buried.". Buffy was looking down.

"I never ruled out the possibility that Xander became a vampire Will." Buffy said. But Willow still did not want to believe it, Xander was dead and buried, of that Willow was certain.

"Xander is NOT a vampire" Willow said in a dangerous tone, feeling that familiar sensation that her eyes where about to go black. Buffy must have noticed this since she quickly changed the subject.

"I'll bring Sam and Kate to kindergarten and see you at work" Buffy said and collected the kids to go out the door.

"Yeah, see ya, be back before Sundown." Willow said moodily. Buffy and Willow both worked at the local high school, Buffy as a guidance councilor, Willow as Computer Science teacher. Not that there where many high school students nowadays, but it kept you under the radar, and made sure you had some income.

But they did not see much of each other within the school since Willow was mainly confined to her class room while Buffy was confined to her office. The only contact they had was over MSN, and then sparingly since the Vampire King was logging all high school network traffic. Willow had not yet found a hole in the high schools network security. The whole thing was probably protected by magic, and using magic in the school was a sure way to draw unwanted attention.

A couple of minutes later Willow got up and went outside to walk to work herself. Luckily the high school was not far, but it still annoyed Willow that humans where not allowed to drive any kind of car, it effectively confined every living human to about two miles radius from their home if they wanted to make it home in time for sundown. The only ones who where allowed to drive a car where vampires and demons, with the exception of slayers, for some reason.

Willow looked weakly around the ruins that was now this part of the city. Buffy and Willow's house was practically the only house that still stood in this neighborhood. The other houses where long abandoned or where in ruins. Willow sighed and walked down the street towards the high school. This part of town had been in this state ever since the Twilight thing, the presence of the Vampire King in the city did not improve anything to the neighborhood.

For four years now the city of New York was under the iron rule of the Vampire King, Willow remembered the halfhearted assault of Buffy and most slayers that where based in New York... _Better not go there_ Willow thought.

Still musing the unfairness of the living conditions in New York Willow turned towards the high school and her class room. She had prepared some tests for the students. At that point the principle entered, who happened to be a vampire. The principle was a large and muscled vampire with a balding head and an oversized mustache.

"Today we have some new students" the principle said. "The King has decided it is time to allow our fellow vampire to study here too.". At this Willows mouth nearly fell open.

"Vampires? … Sir?" Willow asked with disbelieve. "Won't they try to, I don't know, eat me?". _Oops, wrong thing to say to a vampire._

"Careful miss Rosenberg, or I might be tempted to eat you myself, don't worry though, I have strict orders from the Vampire King himself to let you and the Summers woman live, no feeding." the principle said with a growl. _O yeah_ Willow remembered the special 'circumstances' regarding Buffy and herself. Luckily those circumstances extended to Sam and Kate as well. It was not that Buffy and Willow couldn't handle themselves without it, but Sam and Kate couldn't.

"The Vampire King himself will make sure that you are save, though if you dust any of the kids, your protection will be gone." the principle threatened. Once again that morning Willow had to fight back her black eyes and the urge to blow something up. _This is gonna be a long day_ Willow thought.

That whole day Willow had to endure the hungry looks of vampires and fight back the urge to just dust them all with some spell. The only contact she had with Buffy that day was a quick agreement that Willow would pick up Sam and Kate from kindergarten before going home.

When the high-school hours where finally over Willow hurried to kindergarten to pick up the kids and quickly make it home before sun-down. Willow knew that if she was caught on the streets after sun-down that she would be hauled off by prison trucks to some secret location in New York. It did not improve her mood when the vampires who had looked over Sam and Kate looked hungrily at their necks. Willow was lucky that Sam and Kate shared the same protection Buffy and herself had, as long as they lived under the kings stupid rules, they would be safe.

Once home Willow collapsed on the sofa and found Buffy already sitting on the couch. "I don't think I can do this any longer." Willow said desperately. "I nearly dusted some of the students and the principle".

Buffy laughed at this "I did dust a student today, the principle was not pleased, I was able to get away under the pretense of it being an accident." Buffy said. "Though I have to talk to the principle tomorrow, I will probably be led before the king or something." Buffy now said sadly.

Before Willow could react to that the phone went, Willow picked it up. "Hello?" Willow asked the receiver.

"Hello Willow." said the familiar voice of Kennedy, her ex-girlfriend. "We need the two of you at the slayer base, we got some disturbing developments.".

"Okay, let us just put Kate and Sam to bed, then we'll be right there." Willow said, and broke the connection.

Buffy looked towards Willow, "What was that about?" she asked.

"No idea." Willow answered. "Kennedy sounded pretty serious though, they don't ask us for the light jobs".

Buffy and Willow put Sam and Kate to bed and moved towards the basement where they found the hidden portal that lead to the slayer base.


	3. The Monarch

**Chapter 2: The Monarch**_  
19th of September 2010, 10:00 PM, Seat of the Vampire King, Manhattan, New York_

"_Vampires are equal to humans." Harmony said to the journalist._

"_Shut up you stupid dint." a new voice said, followed by a crossbow bolt sticking trough Harmony's chest and her crumbling to dust. "Vampires are greater then humans." the voice explained. The owner of the voice moved forwards with a crossbow in hand. He was wearing a black long robe, a black cloak with black hood up, and a pair of dark sunglasses._

"_Who are you?" the journalist asked with fear showing on his face._

"_I'm the Vampire King, from now on no human may go outside after sundown, no human may drive a car, or this will happen to them." the King said as he moved to the journalist and drained all his blood. "And that are just some of the new laws out of the top of my head" The King said while blood was dripping from his mouth._

That had been four years ago, shortly after the war of Twilight. The Vampire King remembered it like yesterday, the timing had been perfect. Harmony had been on a tour around the world and just happened to stop by in New York, The King had followed her during one of her interviews, killed Harmony, the crew, and declared himself the ruler of New York.

Which was quite easy, since New York got hit very hard in the war of Twilight, and was still trying to get on it's feet. Something about three hurricanes, an earthquake, a tornado and a couple of thousand demons, maybe not exactly all at the same time.

Of course the slayers where not very happy with that. But they where still too battered from the war of Twilight to be much of a threat, in New York anyway. Not that Buffy did not try to bring him down. The King remembered Buffy's attack and chuckled, that Buffy even thought she could bring him down that easily.

A couple of days after the King had dusted Harmony, Buffy and Willow showed up in New York with a small group of slayers. Buffy collected every last slayer left in New York and launched an attack at the former seat of the Vampire King. It had been quite a massacre, which the King always loved. The slayers where not trained well, and easily defeated. Buffy and Willow seemed not to fight as well as the King remembered them fighting when he was working with them. That was when the King noticed that Buffy was highly pregnant.

After the King killed most of the slayers and had captured Buffy and Willow he made a deal with them. They had to live under his rule and could count on his protection. They where not allowed to dust any vampire, or break any other of the Kings laws. If they broke any of the Kings laws, The King would go after Buffy's kid, or kids as it turned out. For four years the King had enjoyed watching Buffy and Willow try to cope with the laws the King put up, which where always becoming more strict. The King enjoyed to see how frustrated he could get either of them.

Buffy and Willow both got a job at the high school in their neighborhood, which was of course owned by the King himself. The King repeatedly lowered their salary so they had to get by on scraps sooner or later. This let Buffy and Willow to give the kids into the hands of the local kindergarten, which was again owned by the Vampire King, so they could work more often. Buffy and Willow just had enough income to buy themselves and their kids some food and to pay the rent for their house.

Not all of the Kings enemy's where that easy though. Spike and a small band of slayers was regularly raiding his prisoner and money trucks, not enough to actually put the Kings plans on hold, but enough to be a nuisance. The King had not yet found where Spike was hiding out, he had scoured the city a couple of times already. But Spike did not bother the King that much, soon even Spike would fall under his rule.

The King was startled from his thoughts by a loud bell _Ah, the prisoners_ The King thought. The King moved to the parking lot to watch the unloading of the prisoners. There where around 20 prisoners _Not a bad load_ the King thought.

One of the prisoners, a brown haired girl seemed to give a lot of trouble and broke free. The girl managed to knock out one vampire before she was mastered again. The King moved towards the commotion and was pleasantly surprised when he recognized the girl as Dawn Summers.

"Enough!" The King shouted, the vampires got in line at once and Dawn stopped struggling to look towards The King. "Always bind the legs too, must I do everything myself?" The King mused.

"That is no fun." one of the vampires answered. "It is fun if they try to run" another added.

"Not if it is such a valuable prisoner." the King answered. "This is the slayer's sister, she will be very valuable to me.". At this some of the vampires looked scared in the direction of Dawn.

"The slayer's sister?" a vampire with blonde long hair asked while he grabbed Dawn. "And what is she to you? I am the one who caught her, she shall be mine!" the vampire continued.

"O, really?" the King asked "The girl and I have a history, she and I are gonna have some fun, so I take her from here." the King continued while the blonde vampire turned to dust. "Anyone else want to try her?" the King asked while putting away a crossbow. None of the other vampires where interested in Dawn after that.

"I don't want to be disturbed by anyone for the next few hours, go feast on the prisoners if you like." the King said to his minions, that was not something the King had to tell twice. Soon the vampires where feasting on the new prisoners.

The King took the struggling Dawn back inside, took the tape of from her mouth and threw her to the ground. "You've been training since the last time I saw you Dawnie." the King taunted to Dawn.

"My sister is gonna kill you now!" Dawn said. The King reacted by kicking her in the stomach.

"You truly think Buff will come for you Dawnie? When was the last time you even spoke to her? O wait, that was four years ago." The King sneered while Dawn struggled and managed to get up.

At this Dawn looked shocked _Bingo_ the King thought. "You - you - … Who are you?" Dawn was able to ask after some time.

"An old friend." The King said smiling while he removed his hood and sunglasses. The shock on Dawn's face made the King laugh.

"Xander?" Dawn asked shocked. "But - but you're dead" Dawn said while visibly struggling to believe what she saw.

"Dead? I walk, I talk, I kill, that is more then I can say about you.". Xander said, his smile getting bigger and bigger by the moment. "You know it would never have worked between us anyway." Xander said to rub some salt in old wounds. The look of horror on Dawns face was priceless.

"Get away from me you freak". Dawn yelled, but instead Xander advanced further. "Are you going to kill me." Dawn asked.

"Kill? Who said anything about killing, Dawnie?" Xander asked. "I will let you watch while I kill Buffy, Willow and their precious kids, then I will decide whether to kill you or to make you my queen." Xander smiled at the idea. "But Buffy is not going to be here for some time, and I have all the time in the world. Till Buffy finds you, I'm going to have some fun." Xander said as he hit Dawn again, once again Dawn fell to the ground. Tears started to appear on her face.


	4. Sister

**Chapter 3: Sister**  
_20th of September 2010, 8:00 PM, Slayer Base_

Buffy and Willow arrived in a room which was lined up with portals leading to places all over the world. A door on the other end admitted Buffy and Willow to the command center where they could see a blue beam powered by the scythe. Buffy did not fight that often these days, and if she did need the scythe for something the base had a backup power source.

"You killed a vampire?" Willow asked worried.

"Like I said, it was an accident." Buffy explained again. "The King can do what he wants, I just don't care anymore at this point.". Buffy had never been good at following the rules of the Vampire King. "Besides, it is not the first vampire I dusted these four years, it is just the first time I got caught in the act." Buffy said.

"I hope you know what you are doing." Willow sighed.

"Says 'I want to blow up stuff' girl?" Buffy teased, Buffy knew that Willow has had nearly as much trouble as she had in keeping herself under control, she had spotted Willows eyes going black at more then one occasion already. That was always a danger sign.

"Caught me, I'm getting a bit restless." Willow said.

"Well, then I think we have just the thing to get you going." Kennedy's voice said from up ahead. At hearing Kennedy's voice Willow quickly glanced down. Buffy remembered Willow's affair with 'Saga Vasuki' a mystical demon entity who was half snake, half woman. Thanks to the whole Twilight crap it got out in the wide open. Kennedy was not pleased when she found out. That was put lightly. It did not help matters that Kennedy caught Willow and Buffy in bed together to comfort each other over Xander's death, even though all clothes where still on. Willow and Kennedy broke up shortly after.

"Hi Kennedy, how have you been?" Buffy asked. "er, I mean, what is the problem?" Buffy quickly asked upon seeing the serious look on the dark haired girl's face, it seemed it was no time for smalltalk.

"We got disturbing news from Spike concerning Dawn." Kennedy said. Buffy got a sick feeling in her stomach when she remembered the last time she had seen Dawn. Xander had sacrificed his life for her and Dawn had literally fled from the Hell mouth crater. Later Buffy heard that Dawn was working for Spike to harass the Vampire King in secret. Their activities where mainly to ambush prisoner and money trucks that where going to the Vampire Kings domain. Not to many to put a damper on the Vampire Kings plans, but enough to be noticed and be a nuisance. Sometimes Buffy and Willow helped out on some of those missions, in disguise of course. But she had never spoken or seen Dawn since Xander's death.

"I don't like it when 'Dawn' and 'disturbing' are used in one sentence". Buffy said. While she walked further into the command center.

"I still have Spike on screen one, he wanted to talk to you specifically Buffy." Kennedy said seriously. When Buffy approached screen one, The blonde vampire was already looking trough from the other side.

"So what is with Dawn?" Buffy asked before Spike could open his mouth.

"Hello to you too Pet, The nib'lit did not come home from her mission last night, we fear she has been captured by the Vampire King". At this the sick feeling in Buffy's stomach was instantly replaced by a feeling of nausea.

"Captured?" Buffy asked dangerously and unbelieving, when Spike flinched Buffy snapped "CAPTURED?".

"Calm down Buffy" Willow said, putting a hand on Buffy's shoulder. But the fact that Willow's eyes had just turned black did nothing to calm Buffy down.

"Then go and free her Spike, isn't she supposed to be your responsibility?" Buffy yelled at the screen.

Now it was time for Spike to get angry "Listen here, We have no sodding idea where to find the Vampire King, and we are working here around the clock to locate your sister, I'm just calling in to let you know that she is gone. If you want to find her sooner, I suggest you help out a bit instead of hanging before the telly all night for a change!". Despite Buffy's anger Spike words hit home. She had been neglecting her duty as a slayer lately, that was true, but there where exceptional circumstances.

"I have to look after my kids now Spike!" Buffy said.

"Right, your kids who are protected by all magical protection spells Red here can think of, plus have the protection of the Vampire King himself? Now is the time to look after your sister Pet, not Twilight's spawn!" Spike retorted. Buffy quickly looked down, it was true that Sam and Kate where conceived during the creation of the Twilight universe and had all manner of protection spells around their bedroom, but that did not make Buffy worry about them any less.

"I'm here now right?" Buffy asked angrily, just when screen two sprang on, it was a Japanese slayer who Buffy recognized as Satsu.

"I have located Dawn at Mcgolrick Park, the Vampire King is there too, I did not see any other vampires nearby. Oh hello Buffy." Satsu said turning to Buffy. Buffy knew that Satsu had never fully gotten over her and was still in love with her, despite the fact that Buffy could never return that love.

"What do you propose?" Kennedy asked before Buffy could react. Buffy guessed that there was something going on between Satsu and Kennedy, but she never could be sure of that.

"I go to the park, kill the King and take Dawn home." Buffy said while she went to pick up the scythe.

"I don't think that is the best course of action..." Spike started to say, but was cut short by Buffy.

"I don't care Spike, the King can put his rules on me, he can threaten me, but no one messes with my sister!" Buffy yelled while she turned off screen one, and thus breaking the connection with Spike.

"Buffy, if you are going to walk into this obvious trap, I think I should at least be with you." Willow said seriously. Buffy was relieved to see that Willows eyes had turned back to their normal green color, but Buffy did not know how long that would be the case.

"Fine, get your supplies" Buffy said while picking up the scythe, not in the mood to argue. "What portal leads to the park?".

"I'll have to reconfigure the New York portal" Kennedy said "I'll punch in the right coordinates." _Good_ Buffy thought, she never was very good with the high tech stuff, that is what she had Xander for... Emphasis on had...

"I'll deploy a small squad as backup" Satsu said. "Just in case". Buffy nodded in agreement.

Buffy and Willow went back to the portal room, followed by Kennedy. "Just be careful, we have been able to operate in secret for four years now, no use blowing our cover now." Kennedy said. Buffy knew this to be true, but at this point all she could think about was what the King probably had done to her sister, and what she was going to do the King.

When Kennedy reprogrammed the New York portal, Buffy and Willow stepped trough and ended up just outside a police call box just outside Mcgolrick Park. The police boxes had been Andrew's idea. Andrew was working in England for what is left of the Watchers Council these days, keeping track of all slayers.

Buffy and Willow moved to the park entrance and spotted The Vampire King and Dawn standing together. Buffy and Willow approached them both. When they got closer Buffy could see that Dawn was bound and gagged, her clothes where cut away at a lot of places, everywhere Buffy could see Dawn's skin there was either a big bruise, or cuts.

"So here comes the slayer and the witch." The King sneered as they approached. "I'm impressed, I expected you to take longer to find her." Buffy had a lot of trouble to keep herself under control, just attacking the Vampire King was not the best idea.

"I'll dust you, even if it is the last thing I do." Buffy said with venom in her voice.

"If you do that, your sister here dies before she hits the ground." The King said and pointed to the high buildings all around them. "I got snipers all over the place, on my sign, or my dusting they will all fire at your sister, so let's try to keep this civil." The King said with a mock smile.

"You're snipers are about to get dusted." Willow said, probably hoping to buy more time.

"Not all my snipers are demons, are you going all slayer on humans now?" The King asked.

"Humans can be knocked out." Buffy argued, but she knew it was no use, Willow nor Buffy knew how many snipers the King had, or how many Satsu's squad would be able to take out before either Buffy or Willow snapped.

"Enough small talk." Willow said angrily, "Time for some beat down!" Buffy quickly looked at Willow and saw her eyes go black, in the back of her head she could already hear the snipers firing.

"Willow, No" Buffy yelled, but then Willow threw her magic force at the King and her hair also turned black. Buffy did not have a choice anymore, or she would loose both her sister and Willow. Buffy punched at Willow to break her concentration and knocked her unconscious.

"So you really want your sister back? Fine, you can have her!" The King said menacing, he seemed to have received some bad burns from Willow's attack. Before Buffy could react the King drew a knife and slit Dawn's throat, and walked away.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion for Buffy, she saw Dawn fall to the grass, felt her body moving to catch Dawn, she heard herself scream "Nooooooo", but non of that seemed to have any impact on her brain, the only thought going through her brain was _please Dawn, don't die. _Buffy got to Dawn and tried to cover up the cut in her throat with her hands, but Buffy could only look helplessly as Dawn's life was slipping away through her fingers. The King said something but Buffy did not hear or listen to him anymore as she tried desperately to do something to save Dawn.

Somewhat later, was it seconds, minutes, hours? Buffy did not know, Willow came up beside her and said something, but again Buffy did not register what was being said. Willow knelt down and took Buffy's hands and pushed them gently away. Finally Buffy understood that Willow was trying to heal Dawn. Buffy stepped back and let Willow work "Will she live?" she asked on the verge of tears.

"Yes, she will live" Willow said. Buffy let out a sigh of relief. "But I doubt she will ever be able to talk again." Willow said sadly. "Also her memory has been altered, she has been made to forget something." Willow continued. At this Buffy wanted to dust the king where he stood, but the King was nowhere to be found in the park.

"Let's go home" Buffy said, Willow quickly agreed. Together they picked Dawn up and moved towards the police box to go back to the slayer base, and then home.

Once Dawn was lying unconscious on the couch the last words of the Vampire King finally penetrated the fog of Buffy's mind "By the way Buff, I heard you dusted a vampire of mine, that means I get your kids.". At those words Buffy panicked and ran towards the room where Kate and Sam where sleeping, dreading what she would find.

When Buffy opened the door to the room where her kids where sleeping, she found both beds empty.


	5. Mother's Love

**Chapter 4: Mother's Love**  
_20th of September 2010, 10:00 PM, 140th avenue, Queens, New York_

Willow crouched near Dawn's unconscious form to heal her bruises and cuts, for which she had not taken the time to heal out in the park. Dawn was fully covered with bruises and cuts _What has the bastard done to you_ Willow thought. Just as Willow went to heal some of the heavier bruises and cuts she heard a scream trough the house that froze Willow to the marrow of her back, from the direction of the kids room.

Willow ran to the room to find Buffy sobbing on the ground, and the beds empty. Willow crouched down beside Buffy and asked "What happened in here?".

"The King, he took them." Buffy choked. Willow took Buffy's head in her lap and tried to comfort her.

"We'll find them, we'll find the King, and then we will rip the bastards hearth out." Willow said and she felt her eyes go black and her hair turn dark. At that very moment Dawn entered the room still looking like she had been trough hell.

Willow looked up at her and saw the fear in her eyes, Dawn turned and ran. The shock of the look on Dawn's face returned Willow to herself. Quickly she ran after Dawn and caught her near the front door. "Calm down Dawnie, I'm not evil, I will not go evil.", and Willow kissed Dawn on the cheek. At that Dawn finally calmed down and let herself be set back on the couch. _Great_ Willow thought _A house full of lunatics_. Willow went back to Sam and Kate's room and lead Buffy towards her own room and bed, once again reassuring her that they would find Sam and Kate, no matter what. Buffy nodded and lay down on the bed.

Willow sat down next to Buffy for a while, lost for what to do. Downstairs Dawn needed her healing, and up here Buffy needed her comfort. Willow did not take time to wonder what she herself might need, fighting back the urge to scream.

After sitting next to Buffy for a while Willow decided to call in the help of some slayers to look after the sisters while Willow would try to find any information on the location of Sam and Kate. So Willow dialed the number of Kennedy.

"Hi Will." Kennedy said through the phone.

"I need your help." Willow said. "We found Dawn all damaged, and Sam and Kate are missing, so Buffy is a mess. Can you look after them while I try to figure out a way to find Sam and Kate?". Willow asked desperately.

"I already thought I saw you two taking Dawn trough the slayer base, I'll be right there." Kennedy said reassuringly.

Maybe Kennedy and Willow did not get along as well as they used to since they broke up, but at least Kennedy was someone Willow could still count on.

A short while later Kennedy arrived, giving a quick hug to Willow and wishing her good luck. Willow went down to the Slayer base and found Satsu in the command center.

"Hello Willow, Kennedy filled me in on the situation." Satsu said. Willow sat down next to Satsu near the computers. "Just for the record, I did not find any snipers in the area of the park." Satsu said. Willow did not know if she should be happy to hear this or not. She already felt enough of an idiot that she had attacked the Vampire King while endangering Dawn's life. But at least there where no snipers, so it could have been worse, though Willow did not know how. If she just had stayed at home she could have interrupted the Kings henchmen.

"Let's get working on Kate and Sam, okay?" Willow said, not really willing to discuss the 'rescue' of Dawn in any detail. Willow felt sure that Dawn's 'rescue' had all been set up to lure Buffy and Willow out of the house. Then it hit Willow, she remembered Buffy telling her she had dusted a vampire just a couple of hours ago, and that the principle had caught her on it. The whole thing had been a setup. Everyone had just been an unknowing pawn in the Kings greater plan.

"I have loaded up video images of the outside of your house." Satsu said showing Willow some images. Some time after Willow and Buffy had gone to meet the Vampire King a couple of the Kings henchmen arrived, Willow noticed that they could enter the house uninvited, must be human then Willow thought. But still things did not make sense, how where they able to break trough her mystical defenses that easily? But when Willow looked closer she recognized one of the figures as Amy Madison, an old rival of Willow. There was someone Willow had not seen in four years, Willow was not surprised that Amy was working for the Vampire King. Amy always worked for the greatest power in town.

A second video showed the two figures leaving again a short time later, empty handed. They had not found what they where looking for. This surprised Willow, where the kids already gone when they arrived?

"Do you have video's of the interior of our house?" Willow asked.

"Buffy did not allow us to monitor there." Satsu answered. Willow agreed with Buffy about that, but this time around it would have been handy if they had images of what had happened inside. "But we do have mystical readings of the house, they show a big spike." Satsu continued. This surprised Willow.

"A spike?" Willow asked, had Amy managed to teleport the kids away?

"Yes, look" Satsu said, and Satsu showed Willow a mystical readout of her house and surroundings. It was not very clear to see due to Willow's own defenses, but there was clearly a big green blot quickly visible and then gone, the location matched that of the room of Sam and Kate.

"So Amy teleported them out of there." Willow said, but something was still not right, the timing seemed off. The big green blob of mystical energy was there and disappeared before Amy even arrived at the house, Willow was sure that there was about ten minutes between the two events. Though it could just have been that Amy was checking to see if her handy work had done the job. But that did not add up either, cause Amy would have known it worked, unless Amy was supposed to teleport them to some secret location and Amy was not let in on if it had worked. Yeah, that had to be it.

"Not Amy, someone or something else." Satsu said. At this Willow looked surprised at Satsu _Not Amy? _"I even think the Vampire King has nothing to do with this for once, I have looked at the mystical readings for the past week at your house, which is pretty hard to do since your magics garble the signal pretty much, but when I filter out the noise then it is clear that the spike had been building for at least one week.". And Satsu showed Willow what she meant. Willow wondered how she could have missed that increase in mystical activity around the house, it seemed that Willow's own mystical defenses had blinded her to a mystical attack that had been going on for nearly a week.

"What has the bitch done?" Willow said angrily.

"It was not Amy, Willow, I think Kate and Sam time traveled, the mystical signals are nearly the same as those that transported Buffy to another time, look" And Satsu summoned up some old records from when Buffy went time traveling, and sure enough the pattern was almost the same.

"Excluding exchange student?" Willow asked.

"Excluding exchange student." Satsu grinned. So for once the Vampire King was not responsible for something, but who or what was responsible Willow could not guess, it must have been someone pretty powerful, more powerful then Willow herself was. And Amy was surely not strong enough to time travel two kids to goddess knows what time.

A short time later Kennedy appeared "We have a problem, Buffy went kinda crazy and rushed outside, I'm afraid she might be looking for the Vampire King on foot!" Kennedy said. "I tried to stop her, but she just knocked me out, Dawn wasn't much help either, she fell asleep on the couch.". _That is something at least_ Willow thought.

"Thanks Kennedy" Willow said before rushing back home and out of the house to find Buffy before she did a lot of damage, or got herself killed. neither really worked for Willow.

Willow did not have to search long before she heard signs of battle, and sure enough she found Buffy fighting at least half a dozen vampires, with even more moving in.

"Where is the King? I'm gonna rip his hearth out and rip it to pieces" Buffy yelled while dusting a couple of vamps with the help of the scythe. But the vampires neither gave Buffy the answer she needed, nor did they backup, having confidence in their overwhelming numbers.

Willow quickly went to help Buffy out in the fight and tried to get Buffy's attention "We need to get out of here" Willow yelled.

"The bastards are gonna pay" Buffy yelled back, that did not seem to be the way to reason with Buffy tonight. "They are gonna die till they give me my kids back!" Buffy yelled while she dodged a couple of kicks and punches while dusting a couple of vamps again.

_The King does not have your kids_ Willow thought in the direction of Buffy, she better not say such things out loud out here, for fear of being overheard, Willow did not want the King to know they knew he did not have Buffy's kids. Willow dusted two vamps with a well aimed fire spell.

"What?" Buffy yelled back in surprise, and then realizing that Willow had talked to her in thoughts she replied in thoughts _What_? While Buffy dusted another vamp who tried to bite her.

_Satsu and I think it is a time travel thing_ Willow thought to Buffy, meanwhile Willow shouted "This is gonna get you killed, how are you supposed to look for your kids when you are dead?". Willow threw around some protection spells around Buffy and herself.

_Good point_ Willow heard Buffy reply in her thoughts "RUN" Buffy shouted. Willow put up a mystical barrier that was quickly broken by the sheer numbers of vampires assaulting it, but it bought Buffy and Willow the couple of seconds they needed.

Both Buffy and Willow started running towards their home, after dusting a couple more vampires they made it inside. Where Willow finally collapsed of all the exertions that day, and started crying. Buffy took Willow in her arms and cried herself.

This is how Kennedy found them some time later "We got major problems now, you do realize the two of you have just declared war to the Vampire King himself?" Kennedy asked. Willow simply couldn't care less, _let the bastard try, if it is a war he wants, it is a war he gets_ Willow thought.


	6. War

**Chapter 5: War**  
_These are excerpts out of the diary of Dawn Summers._

21st of September 2010  
_Kate and Sam went missing yesterday, or so I heard. I only ever saw pictures of them, they looked cute._

_It seems that Buffy and Willow are waging a war against the Vampire King, good for them, I hope they find him and kill him, after what he has done to me... I can still feel the whip, the kicks, the tortures, the knife on my throat..._

_Anyway, that was yesterday, today Buffy and Willow got ambushed by vampires at the high school, they work there, or worked is maybe more accurate. Buffy and Willow where expecting an ambush, so they had asked slayer backup before going in, and naturally they cleared the whole building of vampires. I heard there is even an extended slayer base there now._

* * *

22nd of September 2010  
_Giles called in today, I happened to be at the slayer base at that moment. Giles did not seem pleased about the war, but promised to help to find Kate and Sam. Not the Giles I remember, no to taking out a dangerous vampire, but yes to find two lost kids? Not that I'm complaining, I want Sam and Kate back as much as Buffy does, but still, Buffy could have used some of the Watchers Council's resources in the war._

_At one point Buffy and Giles got into a very heavy argument, I think that everyone in a 5 miles radius could have heard them arguing, not that there is anyone in a 5 miles radius of the slayer base, I think. The slayer base is in some other dimension or something._

_I did not listen much to the argument, Giles and Buffy have not been getting along ever since Giles tried to kill me in order close the Twilight portals 4 years ago. Some other guy died in my place, I don't know exactly who, but Buffy and Willow where pretty broken about it. It was one of the reasons I left them, breaking over a guy you don't even know? They should have been more worried about me, I mean I was the gall that almost got killed... Hmm, maybe I got a bit selfish there and then... Is this even the reason I left them? I can't really remember now... Who was the guy who died? What was his name? I guess that is not really important now._

_For some reason Willow has not left her room the whole day._

_The Vampire King has laid siege to the high school, the slayers have not been able to break the siege yet._

* * *

23rd of September 2010  
_Today Spike came by to see how I was doing. I couldn't actually talk to him, with my voice still gone. Willow said something today about my voice never coming back. I hope that is not true._

_Spike agreed that it was safer for me to stay with Buffy and Willow then at my own house. Guess I'm living in with my sister again, just when I thought I would never have to live under the same roof as her ever again._

_Buffy has been acting like the big sister and won't take me on any of her patrols or raids. She knows I can keep my own, I have been doing so for 4 years running. For 4 years it has been me who was risking my neck, not Buffy. Only when I nearly die will she take any action. Great sister I have. Or is she only taking action now cause she doesn't have to look after her kids now?_

_Spike is also looking for Kate and Sam and is helping in the war. What is so damn important about these kids that everyone seems to be putting effort in to find them? It is not as though Spike owes anything to Buffy._

_The high school is under vampire control again, most slayers got out okay, luckily._

* * *

24th of September 2010  
_Angel called in today, so it has been drama day around here. Turns out that Angel is the father of Sam and Kate, I had heard the rumors, but thought they where not true. It explains why the kids are so important, Willow explained that it had something to do with Twilight, which is never good._

_I guess that Buffy is still in love with the vampire, but really doesn't trust him anymore. Can't blame her, I don't trust him either, it is partly his fault that I nearly died, sorry, make that totally. Again Buffy brings up that other guy of who I can't remember the name. 'Sander' Buffy called him, or something like that, but I don't remember anyone named 'Sander'... Probably not very important._

_Willow told me that she always feared what would happen if Angel would come over, she thinks it will be a 50/50 change that Buffy will stake Angel, or dive into bed with him. Neither really works, according to Willow. Well, I think he should be staked, cause Buffy and Angel in the same bed equals apocalypse. So I think we are lucky it was just a call and not a visit._

_Angel is also looking for Kate and Sam, he isn't helping with the war, he said that he had enough trouble in LA and that we are on our own here in New York. Logical if you ask me, LA is on the other side of the states, and there always seems to be trouble in LA these days._

_According to Satsu most 'police box portals' have been taken out by the Vampire King, greatly crippling the slayers movement trough the city._

* * *

25th of September 2010  
_Today Buffy and Willow did not get home from their raid. Kennedy claims they are fine, Buffy and Willow are just holed up in some building until a portal can be opened to them, I hope they will get back okay._

_Willow came with a new portal tech today, all you have to do is place a so called 'beacon' somewhere and you can open up a portal from the slayer base to the beacon. Only problem seems to be that the beacon gives off huge mystical signals or something, this means that it attracts attention like crazy. Another problem is that you have to place the beacon first. So it only works to get back to the slayer base quickly, or if another slayer places the beacon first._

_For years I did not like Kennedy, she always is so bratty, especially when she hooked up with Willow, it seemed so short after Tara died that Kennedy charmed Willow, it seemed unnatural. It seems though that Willow did not take her relationship with Kennedy that seriously, since Willow had an affair with a mystical snake lady. When that got out in the open I was surprised that I actually felt sorry for Kennedy. Since Kennedy broke up with Willow I could get along nicely with Kennedy. She seems to have lost some of her confidence. Not that that is a good thing._

* * *

26th of September 2010  
_Buffy and Willow got home fine, they had to fight a lot of vampires before the portal opened, seems that the beacon really attracted to much attention, there where even vampires within the slayer base, not that those vampires survived long. The slayer base has automatic holy water sprinklers, they activate as soon as a vampire enters the slayer base who is not 'invited'. Spike got some mystical protection after a small accident with the holy water sprinklers. I believe that Angel shares the same protection, or so I heard._

_Today we had some mystical attacks on the slayer base, in the form of locator spells. It seems that some magic user who is working for the Vampire King had traced the portal back to it's origin, probably Amy. But the attacks where easily misled, and Willow claims that the traces should be completely gone now, and that the slayer base is safe, for now._

_Willow gave me a small machine today on which I can type some message, and the machine speaks the message for me. The machine is not very articulate and mostly only mumbles are heard. It can't do names very well, and the voice is very monotonous. Though it is better then nothing, I just have to find the right settings I guess._

_I asked Buffy about 'Sander' today, but Buffy started to talk about sand. Maybe the question did not get out right due to that stupid machine. If I just could remember who this 'Sander' guy was. Or if I could actually use my voice..._


	7. Restless

_**Part 2: Remembering the Future**_

**Chapter 6: Restless**  
_27th of September 2010, 3:00 AM, 140th avenue, Queens, New York_

Willow was sitting at the dining table, working on a beacon, trying to tone down the signal. The whole incident in that building was still hunting Willow and made her unable to sleep. The clock on the wall said it was 3:00 AM.

Just when Willow was about to give up and call it a night Buffy came down the stairs looking like she just woke up out of a nightmare.

"Couldn't sleep?" Buffy asked as she went to grab a glass of water.

"I keep thinking about what went wrong with the beacon today." Willow said while she tried to stifle a yawn. "You couldn't sleep either?" Willow asked.

"I had another nightmare." Buffy answered while she walked towards the window and avoided looking towards Willow.

"Anything I should know about?" Willow asked, to Willow's surprise Buffy winced at the question.

"I saw two people fighting, one of them had blonde short hair and was carrying some kind of sword. The other had long black hair, she was mostly using magic." Buffy said while staring outside. "I recognized them as Sam and Kate, only like 14 years older then you know..." Buffy continued. Willow looked concerned at Buffy when she said that.

"You know where they are?" Willow asked hopeful.

"No, I did not recognize the area they where fighting in." Buffy answered. "But that was not all, I wanted to intervene but I couldn't, cause I was dying.". At this Willow looked worried.

"How-?" Willow started to ask but Buffy already continued "The scythe, it was stabbed trough me." Buffy said.

"Who did this? If we knew we could stop it right?" Willow said. But Buffy did not answer, she just continued to stare outside the window. "Who?" Willow insisted again.

Buffy took a deep breath, shook her head and took another deep breath, apparently trying to convince herself to tell something important. "Who?" Willow insisted for the third time.

At this Buffy turned around and looked straight at Willow for the first time that night, Willow saw tears appearing in Buffy's eyes.

"You did Willow." Buffy answered. At first Willow was shocked to hear this, but then Willow figured that she had probably turned evil, not a good prospect, but it would be at least some comfort.

"Was I evil?" Willow asked expecting the obvious answer.

"No." Buffy said while turning away again. _Okay, not the obvious answer_ Willow thought. "You had your normal red haired appearance." Buffy continued.

At this Willow began to laugh and Buffy looked shocked in Willow's direction.

"This is no fun matter Willow!" Buffy said, tears now streaming down her face.

"Buffy, why would I ever kill you? That is as ridiculous as Xander being a vampire." Willow said trying to calm herself down. "You mean to much to me for me to do anything like that, I would never kill you." Willow continued more seriously while she walked towards Buffy.

"But-" Buffy began, but Willow stopped her by giving Buffy a hug.

"I'll never kill you, I promise." Willow said "Never.". As Willow said this she hoped that this was a promise she would never have to break.

"Even if it was a choice between killing me or the destruction of the world?" Buffy asked. At this Willow looked at Buffy.

"What?" Willow asked. _What kind of choice is that? _"No, if the world gives me such choices, it is not a world worth living in." Willow said while she broke away from Buffy. "I'm going to bed, good night Buffy." Willow said while she moved up the stairs to her own room.

When Willow was in her room she sad on her bed for a while, thinking over what Buffy had said. But whatever would happen, Willow would never kill Buffy, there would be a third option, there always was a third option. And why had it to be her? Willow did not know, dreading what was to come.

After sitting on the bed for a while she decided to contact Aluwyn again, maybe she knew more about Buffy's dreams, or maybe she had more news concerning Sam and Kate. Willow gathered a couple of candles and the ingredients she needed to use to get to Aluwyn's realm. Willow remembered that Aluwyn had warned her that the destruction of the seed of wonder would end all magic. But for some unknown reason magic still existed, despite the fact that the seed was destroyed. Aluwyn was not able to give a good explanation for that fact.

After mixing the ingredients, and getting her mind in tune with the magic Willow was transported to the mystical realms, greeted at once by Aluwyn, she was half woman, half snake, other mystical entities called her 'Saga Vasuki', Aluwyn was a trickster demon.

"Hello, Willow, I guess this is a business visit?" Aluwyn asked.

"It's only business now Aluwyn." Willow answered. The time she had had an affair with Aluwyn was way past for Willow. "You're information concerning the seed of wonder proved to be incorrect, it got a good friend of my killed." Willow continued.

At this Aluwyn quickly looked away, as if ashamed. "I was misinformed." Aluwyn said.

"I heard that excuse before, but that is not why I'm here." Willow said. At this Aluwyn looked towards Willow.

"You're looking for the children of Twilight." Aluwyn said, it was not a question.

"The children of Twilight?" Willow asked, she had never thought of Kate and Sam like that before. "I guess I am." Willow answered.

"They are lost in time, tomorrow night they will find their way home." Aluwyn said. At this Willow looked hopeful. "If you are not there to pick them up, they will arrive to die." Aluwyn continued.

"Where do they arrive?" Willow asked, knowing that Aluwyn would not give a straight answer.

"There where you lost your slayer in time before." Aluwyn answered. That was an straighter answer then Willow was used to from Aluwyn, Willow remembered those events like yesterday.

"Thank you." Willow answered, and turned to go back to the earthly plane.

"The children of Twilight will cause time to end." Aluwyn warned. At this Willow turned around, but she could not inquire further, she was leaving already.


	8. The Portal

**Chapter 7: The Portal**  
_27th of September 2010, 8:00 PM, 140th avenue, Queens, New York_

Buffy was sitting in the living room sharpening a couple of stakes. Dawn was sitting on a chair trying to configure her new talking machine, the machine made some mumbling sounds every now and then. Buffy remembered that Dawn had tried to ask Buffy something about sand, but when Buffy answered Dawn had walked away annoyed.

It had been a slow day, Buffy had been going trough her weapons chest and had busy sharpening and cleaning her axes, swords and stakes and other weapons. Willow had been locked up in her room the whole day, probably contacting her mystical sources again.

Just when Buffy was done with sharpening her stakes Willow came down the stairs. The redhead looked tired, but smiled at Buffy and sat down next to her.

"I may have found a trace of Kate and Sam.". Willow said. At this Buffy looked at Willow. "It is not very certain, but there are ripples at 53rd street at the Lex, the same spot you where transported to the future. According to my sources Kate and Sam might be found there.". _Great_ Buffy thought _More time travel, just what I need._ Buffy remembered the last time she time traveled and ended up killing a future version of Willow.

"So we open up a portal there, I go to the future find my kids and come back?" Buffy asked.

"That might be the general idea yes." Willow answered. "I will open up the portal at..." Willow began.

"... midnight." Buffy finished. "I remember, as long as I don't have to kill future Dawn or something it will be fine." Buffy joked. At that Dawn looked annoyed in Buffy's direction. Normally Dawn would have thrown back a snide remark herself, but all Dawn could do now was glower, Dawn's machine gave some mumblings. _Hmm, that foot looks tasty_ Buffy thought.

"We better get going." Willow said, "We might need some slayer backup, cause I don't think the ripples will go unnoticed by the King, and the portal opens directly in his territory.". That was not news Buffy needed, that meant that they did not have much time, and could hardly wait around for 24 hours to open another portal, if the same rules applied as the last time, and Buffy really didn't want to be trapped in yet another building for 12 or more hours.

"How long will the portal remain open?" Buffy asked while Buffy and Willow moved to the portal in the basement. When Buffy noticed Dawn was following them she turned on Dawn "You can't come Dawn, it is to dangerous!" Buffy said. At this Dawn just looked annoyed and stormed back up in the house.

"She has been itching for some action the whole week now." Willow said looking after Dawn with concern in her eyes.

"I don't want her to get hurt again." Buffy returned shaking her head.

"You do know you can't protect her forever." Willow said while opening the trapdoor. Buffy sighed at this, she remembered the last time she was over protective of Dawn, she had sneaked out of the house and ended up parking with a vampire. But Buffy could not help it after what the King had done to Dawn.

Buffy and Willow entered the slayer base and found Kennedy there talking with Satsu who was on screen one.

"Things are getting hectic out here." Satsu said, "We are reading heavy mystical signals at the Lex at 53rd street, well, ripples of heavy mystical energy anyway. But we did not leave any beacons there as far as I know." Satsu continued.

"That is a mystical signal from the future" Willow answered. "We have to get there before the Vampire King does, and open a portal to the future, hopefully Buffy can go trough and find Sam and Kate.". Willow continued.

"That will not be easy". Satsu said turning to Willow. "The signal is attracting every vampire in the city, if the King is not there yet, he is certainly on his way, it is directly in his territory.".

"I know" Willow said. "That is why we have to move out now, the portal has to be opened at midnight, that means we have about three hours to get there.". At this Buffy moved to get the scythe.

"I'll deploy a squad, we might be able to open up a portal nearby without the need of a beacon, the mystical energy there is technically a very strong beacon." Satsu said.

"I'll get on that." Kennedy said while she moved to the portal room "Hello Dawn." Kennedy said some time later. At this Buffy turned towards the portal room, and sure enough Dawn was walking towards them with a crossbow at the ready.

"Alright, you can come." Buffy sighed, knowing it was no use to argue with her sister, Buffy knew that once Dawn got an idea in her head, she would not be stopped. And it was safer if Dawn went with Buffy, then if she went out on her own. Dawn only nodded.

Sometime later Kennedy came back in the command center. "I can't lock on to the ripples to open a portal, they are not stable enough.". That was not something Buffy liked to hear, how where they going to get to the Lex in less then 3 hours without a car? They couldn't use a car or helicopter cause that was a sure way to draw attention. "Satsu, how close can you get to the Lex?" Kennedy asked.

"One moment, I got a scout in that area.". Satsu answered, at this Satsu turned away. About 10 minutes later Satsu returned "Aria is still alive, she has one beacon left and is in position in the Lex building. I would advice to bring a beacon yourselves so you can get extraction when you need it.". Satsu said.

"Ask Aria to deploy the beacon now." Kennedy said, "Then I'll lock on to the signal.". At this Buffy, Willow and Dawn moved to the portal room, a small group of slayers, including Satsu appeared out of one of the other portals and joined the group.

As soon as the portal opened vampires came pouring out. The holy water sprinklers came into action at once, taking care of the vampire invasion. Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Satsu and her squad of slayers moved trough the portal as soon as the portal was clear. The group arrived just outside the Lex building, they found a black haired girl dead next to the portal. "That's Aria, must have gotten ambushed when she planted the beacon. Those things are going to be the end of us." Satsu said while she knelt next to the dead girl.

"I'm working on it." Willow said. "It is tricky to tone such a signal down, but we better hurry if we want to get to open the time portal in time, we have to be at the roof." Willow continued.

Buffy looked at her watch, and saw that they had less then a hour to make it to the roof. "The building is packed with vampires." Satsu said "This is one of the Kings vampire barracks." That was not what Buffy wanted to hear.

"So how are we going to get up to the roof in less then a hour if we are here on the ground?" Buffy asked, getting hopeless.

"I can fly two of us to the roof." Willow said. "But the rest of us have to go to the roof the hard way.".

"Works for me" Satsu said while Satsu and her squad got out grappling guns and fired it at a higher floor of the Lex. "Meet you on the roof" Satsu said while the slayers went up in the air and entered the Lex building trough the windows.

Willow did not hesitate and grabbed Buffy and Dawn and flew them up to the roof of the Lex. Unfortunately there was a group of vampires waiting for them.

Buffy landed fighting, using her scythe to clear some space for Willow to drop Dawn. Dawn had already loaded her crossbow and fired the crossbow at the vampires, dusting one. In a fluid motion she reloaded the crossbow while picking up a stake. Buffy was surprised to see how good Dawn had gotten at fighting vampires. Willow gave mystical support from up in the air.

10 minutes before midnight all vampires where cleared from the roof. Willow started the summoning of the portal immediately while Buffy and Dawn checked to see if more vampires where on their way.

1 minute before midnight Buffy got ready to jump trough the portal as soon as it appeared, so that she would have the most time to find her kids while the portal was still open, Buffy still had no idea how long she exactly had.

At midnight exactly the portal opened, before Buffy could start moving 3 people appeared trough the portal. A dark blue haired girl Buffy recognized as Melaka Fray fell to the ground in front of her. A boy, in his late teens, with short blonde hair, and with a familiar face Buffy could not bring home stood over Melaka with a sword in one hand and a small ax in the other in a battle stance. The blonde boy was clad in comfortable jeans and a t-shirt. Behind the blonde man stood a girl, also in her late teens, with long black hair and also with a familiar face Buffy could not bring home. The black haired girl was clad in a long white Wicca dress. When Buffy finally realized who she was looking at she could only look surprised and was frozen on the spot.

The girl with the black hair waved with her hands and the portal closed behind her. "Hello mom" The black haired girl said smiling while looking Buffy directly in the eyes. "I hope you have rooms left, we brought a guest.".


	9. Saving a Witch

**Chapter 8: Saving a Witch**  
_Sometime in the 23rd century, Lex building, 53rd street, Haddyn, Noram_

Samuel 'Sam' Summers was sitting in the flying car he had stolen and was looking towards the Lex building, watching a green demon who had arrived on the roof of the building.

Sam looked over to his sister, Katherine 'Kate' Summers, who was sitting next to him, and saw that she was also looking to the demon in concentration, as though she was readying herself for a spell.

"Can we kill it now?" Sam asked while turning back towards the demon.

"No, that is the slayer's job." Kate answered. Sam remembered that Willow had talked about the slayer, Melaka Fray, that lived in Haddyn, how she was only half a slayer, and how her brother had turned into a vampire.

"I'm a slayer" Sam said, knowing that Kate hated it when Sam called himself that.

"First of, slayer's are all girls, secondly, your powers come from your father's side, not your mother's." Kate countered. "And thirdly, we don't want to kill this demon." Kate continued before Sam could answer. Sam remembered the plan, the slayer was to fight the green demon, and then Willow would open up a portal to the past with the help of the slayer's brother, so they could summon Buffy Summers to the future. Kate's and Sam's mother.

"Remind me again why we trust Willow?" Sam asked Kate.

"We don't." Kate answered. _Of course_ Sam thought. Sam never learned to like or trust Willow in the 4 years they had spend with her after the coven had gone up in flames. "Willow probably has her own plans, our goals are the same for now." Kate continued.

At that moment the slayer arrived, a dark blue haired girl who had a scar just above her lip. Sam couldn't help but find her beautiful. "Wow, good looking" Sam said lowly. Kate just shook her head.

After the slayer gave the demon a good punch a portal appeared trough which the demon disappeared, to be directly replaced by a blonde woman Sam recognized from an old picture: Buffy Summers.

Sam started to move, but Kate stopped him. "This is not our mother." Kate said. "She is from the wrong time, we don't exist yet in her time.". At this Sam sat back down and tried to remember what Willow had told them, Sam never was a good listener to stuff like history and books, that was more Kate's area.

"This is toy!" Melaka's voice could reach Sam and Kate without much trouble. When Sam looked towards the Lex, Buffy was lying on the ground with Melaka standing over her. "You think you can spin me with a half-coi glam of a slayer been dust more then two cen? You're lower then a lurk." Melaka continued. Sam couldn't help but chuckle at the futuristic slang Melaka used. Buffy's reaction was just "Uh... English?". The two slayers got in a fight, both armed with a scythe. Buffy and Melaka jumped off the building right on top of a speeding flying car, and where soon out of sight.

"That was bracing, now what?" Sam asked.

"If I know my history correctly this is the summons on which Buffy killed Willow, we are going to save Willow's life." Kate said. At this Sam looked surprised, why would they want to save Willow? All she had ever brought was a lot of trouble, if Buffy would kill Willow, Sam could only cheer Buffy on.

"Tell me again why we would even want to save Willow's life? If it was up to me we should have killed her four years ago." Sam said.

"Luckily it is not up to you." Kate said. "We are going to take Willow back to the past with us, so we can question her and make sure that this future will never be." Kate continued. Sam couldn't imagine how they where going to do that, but Kate had worked on some ideas, even though neither of them knew what had happened since the events of Twilight.

"So when the portal opens, which brings Buffy back to her proper time, we jump in after wards with Willow?" Sam asked, still not sure what the plan exactly was.

"No, we can't do that, or we would risk erasing our own existence." Kate said. "We must summon our own portal, I have created this beacon which sends a mystical signal into the past to exactly one week after we disappeared, if my calculations are correct. I just hope that the Willow of that time can catch the signal and open the portal for us." Kate continued. Sam did not like the plan, if it went wrong, they would be lost worse in time then they already where, but it was the only plan they had.

"Why one week?" Sam asked. Sam and Kate had spend the last 14 years in this time, Sam was not sure how Buffy would react if they where all of a sudden 14 years older then they where remembered. It would be awkward.

"Cause I think that important things are happening in that time, things we should be on top of, things that happened that should not happen, or things that did not happen that should happen." Kate said.

"You spend to much time talking to Willow." Sam said. Willow usually talked in riddles like that, it was very confusing for Sam to try and follow what Willow was saying when she said such things. And usually Willow meant something completely different from what she said. "So what do we do now? We wait?" Sam asked.

"Get up the building across the street there, I must prepare a spell, it is not good to prepare spells while we are floating in mid air." Kate said.

"As long as I don't get a ticket for this, remember that this car is stolen." Sam said while he aimed the car up to a nearby building and parked on it's roof. Luckily the law's where not nearby.

Kate got the supply's in the back of the car and sought a good spot where she could watch what was going on at the roof of the Lex, which at the moment was still empty. "How long do we have to wait?" Sam asked.

"Don't know, twenty four hours or more if we are unlucky." Kate said. Sam shrugged and went on to watch the roof of the Lex..

"How are you going to save Willow?" Sam asked while Kate was gathering some ingredients for her spell.

"I'm going to use the power of the scythe, Buffy probably has it with her, with it I'm going to try and save Willow." Kate answered.

"Can't you just use Melaka's scythe?" Sam asked, not sure if the scythe would survive Kate's spell.

"I could, but only if Melaka is at the scene, which I'm not positive about." Kate answered.

"You know how Buffy kills Willow?" Sam asked.

"No idea." Kate answered.

"Right." Sam said while he turned to watch the Lex buildings roof once more.

* * *

Twenty hours later Melaka reappeared on the Lex buildings roof _At least now Kate can use her scythe_ Sam thought. A short time later Buffy climbed up the building. "I can't let you go." Melaka said to Buffy.

"Didn't you listen to Willow?" Buffy said back. It seems that Willow had gotten to Buffy and Melaka, whatever she had told them, it would not be good. "'It's who kills you.'. Pitting us against each other is her idea of game night. We are the scattergories of evil." Buffy continued. That sounded like a scheme Willow would pull of, pitting slayer against slayer sounded like Willow's idea of fun. Sam was sickened by it.

"Can you swear my world won't mist out if you leave?" Melaka asked. "My best bonds? My sister?". It seemed that Melaka didn't want to fight Buffy just as Buffy did not want to fight Melaka, and that Melaka was looking for a way to make Buffy swear she would not change the future, Sam did not think that Melaka could win this one.

"You know I can't" Buffy answered. "The big picture." Melaka said. "It's called the fate of the world, short view." Buffy said. Sam had no idea what this was all about, did Buffy want to save Melaka's world or stop it from ever being like Kate? It sounded more like that Buffy could not guarantee Melaka that her world would come to be.

"'Fate of the world.' made sense, when there was only one." Melaka said. To Sam it was quite simple, the world is what it is, you fight, you die, nothing you do will change it.

At that moment Melaka and Buffy got into another fight, it looked like this one was to the dead.

"Yes... so close..." a new voice said, which Sam recognized as Willow's. Willow, with her black hair, black eyes and veins all over her face was watching the fight from a safe distance near where the portal had opened previously. Sam wanted to rush over and kill Willow himself, just for the hell she had put him trough for the last four years.

Meanwhile Kate had started to chant and was juggling with a lot of power, from Sam's perspective it looked like she was preparing to attack Willow herself.

Melaka got thrown of the building, but managed to climb back up, at that moment the portal opened, Buffy made a run towards it. Melaka yelled "Jesu, no, NO" and tried to stop Buffy. With a quick backhand Buffy destroyed Melaka's scythe.

"Jesu" Kate cursed. At this Sam turned around and saw that Kate's hair had gone white, and that she was juggling a lot of power, she apparently had not counted on the destruction of Melaka's scythe at that moment, Sam was afraid that Kate could not hold that much power for very long. The little Sam understood about magic was enough to know that all kinds of power had a source, and if you tapped a source of power, but did not use the power an experienced witch could keep the power running inside themselves for a while. But if the source was destroyed, the witch became the source of the power, and no human could ever be the source for any amount of power for very long, especially not of the power Kate was now handling from the destroyed scythe.

"I'm sorry" came Buffy's voice from the Lex building, but Sam was more worried about Kate at that moment, but Sam knew there was nothing he could do, but hope that Kate would be able to handle the sudden increase of power.

"About what?" Willow asked. Sam could see Buffy turn around. Willow had taken the time Buffy was distracted to move between Buffy and the portal. "Failing?" Willow asked.

"You know I'll go trough you." Buffy said. "And you know you'll have to." Willow answered. "Why?" Buffy asked.

All became clear to Sam at that moment, Willow had all this planned from the beginning, she never wanted Buffy in the future for a change to bring Sam and Kate home. She wanted Buffy in this time so Willow could find dead. Sam and Kate where just an excuse for Willow to find a way, most of the portal tech was found by Kate. And now Sam understood why Kate wanted to save Willow, she could be useful in the past.

"Maybe I think the twentieth century can soldier on just fine without you." Willow said. _Twentieth century? _Sam thought and looked towards Kate, but Kate was still trying to control huge amounts of power, and Sam knew that he should not be breaking Kate's concentration now, or he would certainly loose her forever.

"I'm cute and blonde and popular, but I'm not stupid, Will. You dragged me here and told me exactly how to get out. Everything, every lie, to get us here. Why? What happened?" Buffy asked. Sam wanted to know the same things, but knew that Kate could not hold the power for much longer and wished that Buffy would hurry. "Why does it have to be me?" Buffy asked.

"It's a long story." Willow answered. At this point several things happened at once. Buffy skewered Willow with the scythe, Kate yelled "PROTECT" and lightning struck at Willow. A redheaded girl came blindfolded trough the portal and grabbed Buffy while Melaka was jumping at Buffy, and Willow was falling down, dying.

Kate yelled something else and for a moment Sam's whole world turned completely white and Sam thought that the world was dying. When Sam could see again he saw another blonde woman arriving, a law. Sam started cursing but saw quickly that his car was hidden safely away. Kate got up slowly and walked to where Sam was sitting. When Sam looked towards Kate her hair had turned to their normal black, and he could clearly see the exhaustion from the spell. Sam was surprised that Kate could walk at all.

"We have to hurry now" Kate said while she jumped and soared towards the Lex. Sam quickly jumped after Kate and caught her foot.

"I still can't fly Kate." Sam said annoyed. "And I'm not going to try to jump that distance" Sam added.

Kate landed near the body of Willow, not paying attention to Melaka and the law. Sam moved towards Melaka as soon as he landed.

"Hello there, allow me to introduce myself..." Sam began.

"For crying out loud Sam, this is not the time to score a date!" Kate said annoyed while she placed something on the floor. "Especially not with Melaka cause if we succeed, she won't exist anyway." Kate added.

"Way to break the moment Kate!" Sam said annoyed, but Melaka did not pay any attention to Sam.

"I won't allow you to do that!" Melaka said and turned to attack Kate together with the law, but Sam would have none of it, and drew out his sword and a small hand ax he always carried, and moved to protect Kate with his life if he had to.

"No one attacks my sister!" Sam yelled while he stepped between Melaka and Kate. Melaka tackled Sam, but Sam took Melaka with him in his fall and threw Melaka away. At that precise moment a portal opened and Melaka disappeared trough the portal. Cursing Sam jumped quickly trough the portal, hoping that he would end up where Melaka had gone to. Sam heard Kate go in behind him. But all Sam knew after that was pain.


	10. Reunion

**Chapter 9: Reunion**  
_28th of September 2010, 0:00 AM, Lex Building, 53rd street, Manhattan, New York_

"I hope you have rooms left, we brought a guest." a female voice said, that Melaka recognized as the voice of the black-haired girl who had just a couple of minutes ago said that she was going to change the future. 'Kate' that nice looking blonde had called her.

Melaka opened her eyes and was surprised by what she saw. A blonde woman who Melaka recognized as Buffy Summers stood looking to a point behind Melaka as though she was seeing a ghost. A red-haired woman, who looked suspiciously like the madwoman Melaka had seen dying just a few moments ago, except that her hair was red instead of black, she had no veins on her face, and her eyes where green instead of black, was standing next to Buffy clearly lost for words.

Another dark-haired girl was looking from Buffy to a point behind Melaka and back, clearly wanting to ask questions, but somehow unable to do so.

Melaka turned slowly around and saw the good looking blonde 'Sam' Kate had called him, looking at Buffy with his weapons still drawn. Behind Sam stood Kate also looking at Buffy, smiling.

"Who? What? Where?" Melaka asked confused. If only she could think clearly.

"I think the question you should be asking is 'When'" Kate answered. _When?_ Melaka thought "If my calculations where correct it is the 27th of September in the year 2010." Kate continued, looking towards Buffy.

Only silence followed this statement. Melaka was to busy trying to figure out what had happened to her, and it looked like Buffy, the red-haired woman and the dark-haired girl had lost all speech.

The red-haired woman recovered first "Kate? Sam?" she asked in a shocked voice. Now Melaka knew that the red-haired woman and the madwoman where one and the same, Melaka would recognize that voice anywhere. Kate and Sam only smiled. Before anyone could react Buffy and the red-haired woman ran forward to Kate and Sam and hugged them like their live depended on that one hug.

"What happened to you?" Buffy asked in a hoarse voice. "Long story." Sam answered.

"Who are you people?" Melaka finally managed to ask. All of them seemed to know each other, except Melaka.

"Sorry, Melaka Fray right? It is just as confusing for us as for you I think, I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Buffy Summers." Buffy said turning to Melaka. _Yeah, from like half a hour ago_ Melaka thought, but clearly for Buffy a lot more time had passed then half a hour since their last meeting.

"This is Willow Rosenberg, you might remember her with black hair and veins." Buffy said pointing to the red-haired woman Melaka had already recognized as the madwoman, and Buffy just confirmed it.

"This is my sister Dawn, she won't talk much, or at all, since an unfortunate accident last week." Buffy said pointing to the dark-haired girl. Dawn flinched and looked away.

"It seems you have already met Kate and Sam, my..." Buffy said pointing to Sam and Kate, but Buffy faltered unable to continue.

Before any more explanations could be given, or introductions made, the doors to the fire exit opened and out came a Japanese looking girl followed by at least half a dozen other girls, all armed with stakes and knives. The Japanese girl closed the doors and moved quickly towards Buffy.

"We have company." The Japanese girl said. At that moment the fire doors burst open again and a large number of lurks, or 'vampires' came out. Melaka had only seen that many vampires when Harth had summoned the gateway to hell. Melaka realized that she had no weapons but her ray gun with her. A ray gun was not going to do much to vampires except stun them. But that was no use if she could not use her scythe.

"We need to get out of here!" Willow shouted. Melaka agreed and jumped down from the roof to jump on a flying car.

Except, there where no flying cars.

"Jesu!" Melaka shouted as soon as she realized that she had jumped down a high building without the usual traffic she could use to make it down safe. Halfway down Willow came and caught her. "Where are the flying cars?" Melaka asked shaken.

"Not invented yet." Willow answered while she flew back up to the roof. "You do this more often in your time?" Willow asked. Melaka did not answer but tried to cope with the realization that she had time traveled.

"This is really happening." Melaka said, feeling sick, and then she realized what Willow was doing. "You fly?" Melaka asked surprised.

"With help of magic." Willow answered. _Right, magic_ Melaka thought. Melaka had read some things about magic in the books back home. Whatever 'home' meant now.

When Willow and Melaka arrived back at the roof the fight was already in full progress. Willow and Melaka landed on the roof, Melaka quickly ducked to avoid a kick from a vampire. "I need some kind of weapon" Melaka shouted. At this Sam threw his hand ax towards Melaka which she caught and used to decapitate the vampire.

"Sorry that I destroyed your scythe." Buffy said while she was using her scythe to dust a pair of vampires.

"It was actually my fault." Kate said while she was casting some kind of spell. "I was using the power of your scythe to cast a powerful spell, I did not know that you're scythe would receive a backhand from Buffy." Kate continued. Melaka had no idea what Kate was talking about, except that she was responsible for the loss of her scythe, or took responsibility for it.

"What kind of spell?" Willow asked from above while she was casting spells down on the vampires.

"Protection spell" Kate answered. "I don't know if it worked, we didn't have much time after Willow died before the portal opened." Kate continued.

"I died?" Willow asked, nearly loosing concentration. "Future you. But maybe future you yet lives." Kate answered. "O, okay." Willow said weakly.

"Why did you come here anyway Melaka?" Buffy asked. "Samuel here had to bring a date." Kate answered. "May I remind Katherine that I saved her life?" Sam returned while he was fighting 3 vampires at once. Melaka found it hard to find an opening between all what was being said to answer any questions asked to her, or ask any questions herself.

"How long before that portal opens?" Buffy asked desperately trying to fight of at least half a dozen vampires. Melaka jumped in to help Buffy out, having finished her own vampires.

"Portal?" Melaka asked, she had had quite enough of portals for one night.

"To the slayer base." Buffy explained. "We can get home then, no more time travel." Buffy said with a wink to Melaka.

At that moment a vampire who was wearing a black robe and a black hood with sunglasses arrived trough the open fire door.

"Enough!" the vampire said softly, but strangely his voice could be heard even over all the fighting. And surprisingly everyone stopped fighting.

"The King, the King." the vampires chanted. The hooded vampire moved towards the group of humans who where standing on the edge of the roof.

"The King?" Melaka asked. "The Vampire King." Buffy answered with venom in her voice. "It was he who slit Dawn's throat, making her unable to talk for the rest of her life" Buffy continued.

"Well, well, what have we got here?" the King asked leering. Melaka could already tell that this vampire was the loudest noise in town.

"Move any closer and you're dust." Melaka challenged. "I have dealt with your like before." Melaka continued bravely. To Melaka's surprise Buffy and Willow winched. Dawn nodded to Melaka as though to cheer her on.

At this the King started laughing, it was an unpleasant kind of laugh. "You think it is that easy? Dust me now and you might never get out of here alive." the King said. "The only reason you all still live is cause I say so." the King continued. At this Buffy lost her temper and knocked the King out.

At that moment a small portal appeared. "This portal leads to the slayer base" the Japanese girl said to Buffy. "Go now, I will keep an eye on the King." the Japanese girl continued.

"No Satsu, you could get killed!" Buffy protested.

"Just go!" Satsu said again while the King was coming to.

Buffy, Dawn, Sam, Kate and Melaka moved trough the portal leaving Satsu and her group of girls behind to take care of the King and the vampires. The last Melaka saw of Satsu was that she was jumping of the roof just to shoot a grappling hook at a nearby building.

"She fights well, for someone who is no slayer." Melaka said to Buffy. "Yeah, Dawn has been training a lot." Buffy said. "I meant Satsu." Melaka said back.

"Satsu is a slayer." Buffy said. Then Melaka remembered what Buffy had said earlier today, or was it yesterday? Or 200 years from now? And how surprised Buffy was that there was only one slayer.

"O right, you've got a slayer army right?" Melaka asked.

"I had a slayer army." Buffy corrected, "I'm not leading it anymore, it is all Kennedy's operation now." Buffy continued.

The group moved trough a second portal and Melaka found herself in the basement of a house. Up in the house proper there was a living room and kitchen. Buffy sat down at the kitchen table and the rest of the group followed her example.

"How long ago is it that you went to the future Buffy?" Melaka asked after some time, ready to get some answers at last.

"That was four or five years ago." Buffy answered. "Shorter for you?" Buffy asked.

"It was about one hour ago for me, this has been one strange day." Melaka answered. Buffy nodded at this.

"And how long has it been for you Sam, Kate?" Buffy asked.

"Fourteen years." Kate answered. "We lived in a coven the first ten years, there I learned magic, and Sam learned how to fight." Kate continued.

"After ten years the coven was under attack by demons and burned down to the ground. Kate and I had to flee. That is when we met Willow, it turned out she lived in the coven too before we came." Sam said.

"We traveled for four years to look for a way home, we found it in Haddyn, but Willow betrayed us there when she summoned you to the future mom. We where supposed to summon you from this time, not from four years ago." Kate said. Melaka could not follow anything from what was being said, she had not heard anything about this.

"So what is your plan now?" Buffy asked.

"To make a better future then the future we came from, though that will be somewhat harder now thanks to Willow." Kate answered. Melaka already knew that Kate wanted to change the future, but Melaka was not sure if the madwoman had told her the truth or not. Melaka only knew that this world was as important as her own, if this world would fall, then her world would never be, but that didn't seem to be Kate's intent.

Before Melaka could respond the phone rang, Buffy picked it up. "Yes?" Buffy asked the receiver. While the person on the other end talked Buffy looked more and more troubled the more she heard. When Buffy put the phone down again she looked like she had been beaten. "We have a problem. It seems that Willow has gone native." Buffy said.


	11. The Black Hope

**Chapter 10: The Black Hope**  
_Sometime in the 23rd century, Lex building, 53rd street, Haddyn, Noram_

"Mel!" a voice yelled. Willow felt pain, a lot of pain, she had no idea that dying would be this painful. "Jesu!" the same voice cursed. But the pain did not bother Willow, she had succeeded in doing what had to be done, she had received the rest she had craved for the last 200 years.

"Mel, Where did you go?" the voice asked. Slowly Willow opened her eyes and saw a blonde woman sitting nearby, crying. Willow recognized the blonde woman as the slayer's sister, Erin Fray. Willow expected the world to go black soon, but instead the world grew sharper.

It took a while before Willow realized that she was not dying, but instead had somehow survived. _Impossible_ Willow thought. She had felt the scythe being pierced trough her hearth, she had seen the look of sadness on Buffy's face, she had felt dead approaching, but yet she lived.

Willow looked down at her chest and saw to her surprise that her chest wound had completely healed. When Willow looked around she saw that she was sitting in a pool of her own blood, so it had not been some dream.

Willow tried to think back to what exactly happened. Buffy had stabbed her with the scythe, then some lightning hit her, burning, no, protecting her. Her past self had come trough the portal, she saw that when she was falling down, and had taken Buffy back to her true time. She had also seen a white flash, and saw two people descending from another building, a blonde boy and a black-haired girl. _The children of Twilight_ Willow thought.

Willow noticed a machine lying near where Erin was crying. Willow stood up slowly and walked to the machine and looked at it. It looked like a beacon with a date on it: 27th of September 2010.

This could mean only one thing. Sam and Kate had somehow saved Willow's life and gone back to the their proper time. At that point Erin noticed that Willow was standing nearby and pointed her ray gun at Willow.

"Where is Mel?" Erin asked. Willow looked at the beacon again and somehow knew that Melaka had also traveled to the past.

"Lost in the seas of the past." Willow answered while she tried to think of her next action, not worried about the gun pointed towards her.

"I don't have time for games, tell me where to find her or I will shoot you." Erin said coldly. Willow looked towards Erin and saw the anger in her eyes.

"That anger is not going to get your sister back." Willow said. A new plan was forming in Willow's mind, but it involved going back in the past herself. Erin might be able to help with that. "I know in what time your sister is, important things happen in that time. Her being there will be the step stones for this time." Willow continued.

"What is your plan this time witch?" Erin said angrily.

"I will open up a portal to that same time and then we can both look for your sister." Willow said. Not that Willow cared about the slayer, but she might need her for Willow's plan to work.

"Okay, now I'm pissed." A new voice said. Willow turned around and saw a black-haired boy with glasses arriving at the scene. Willow recognized him as Harth Fray.

"This is not your day Harth." Willow said. Erin backed away and pointed her ray gun at Harth.

"I want to know the truth!" Harth said. "First you help me out, then you set Gunther on my trail, who are you going to spin next?" Harth asked. At that moment a new portal opened at the beacon.

Willow turned towards the portal, but Harth blocked her way.

"You are not-" Harth began, but got hit by a ray gun bolt out of Erin's gun, Harth was knocked back trough the portal. _Great_ Willow thought, was nothing going to go as she had planned tonight?

Willow quickly moved trough the portal herself, and felt a lot of pain again.

When finally the pain had stopped and Willow knew she was on the other end of the portal she quickly waved her hands and closed the portal with an easy spell. Luckily for Willow, Erin had not made it trough the portal. There where already to many people misplaced in time to even try to get a good plan going again. _Better go with the flow,_ s_tory of my life_. Willow thought.

"Well, well, what have we got here?" a voice asked. When Willow looked around she saw a hooded vampire with sunglasses standing nearby. Willow recognized the vampire as the Vampire King, Willow remembered that the Vampire King had ruled New York somewhere in the 21st century.

When Willow looked around she saw that she was surrounded by a small army of vampires, she saw a slayer jumping off the roof and shooting a grappling gun at the next building, Willow also saw a red-haired woman flying away from the scene, and a small portal closing where a couple of people disappeared trough. Willow remembered that the slayer was Satu, and that the red-haired woman was herself. Willow also remembered that the Vampire King was really Xander. The memory's made her sad, but Willow could not linger on them to long.

"Great, vampire city." Willow muttered. Xander moved towards Willow and the unconscious form of Harth Fray.

"Haven't seen you dark in a while." Xander smirked.

"I have been dark for quite some time now." Willow answered

"Are you from the future? Alternate dimension?" Xander asked. It seemed that Xander had once again no idea what was going on.

"Future, past, it doesn't matter where I come from." Willow answered, knowing that Xander could not use such answers. Willow was not going to make it easy on Xander, in fact Xander might be just the one person who could lure Buffy out. Willow desperately wanted to talk to Buffy. Only Buffy could do what was needed. Willow knew that Xander was easy to manipulate, Willow knew that Xander's position was extremely fragile, and she could use that against him.

"Future then. I remember Buffy telling me she killed you." Xander said.

"She did, it did not work out though." Willow said.

"Figured as much, you are my prisoner now, as is that vampire you got with you." Xander said. Willow knew that she did not have much of a choice, but she also knew that Xander's time was coming to an end, one way or another.

"You think you got this won Xander?" Willow asked. Willow could nearly see Xander's eye grow under the sunglasses.

"You know who I am?" Xander asked surprised.

"You think Buffy doesn't know?" Willow asked in return. At this Willow could see uncertainty showing on Xander's face.

"S-she d-doesn't, s-she c-can't" Xander stuttered. It seemed that Willow had hit a nerve and was right that Xander's position was extremely fragile. "I've been careful, I even changed Dawn's memory and everything." Xander continued after he got his posture back.

"You're time is running out Xander." Willow said, knowing that this would drive Xander even more crazy.

"You know what happens don't you?" Xander asked. "You can change things!" Xander nearly begged.

"The future cannot be changed." Willow said, enjoying the desperate looks that went hidden behind those sunglasses.

"What happens soon?" Xander asked.

"Not soon. Now." Willow said while she saw a blue beam heading into the sky on the horizon in the east. "The time for battle has come.". Willow was certain that it would work out.


	12. Battle Preparations

_**Part 3: The Battle of Manhattan**_

**Chapter 11: Battle Preparations**  
_28th of September 2010, 8:00 AM, 140th avenue, Queens, New York_

While the Willow situation was grave, it was decided to leave it till morning, everyone was to tired to even worry what Willow working for the Vampire King might mean. Sam and Kate took Willow's old room, Melaka slept in the same room as Dawn, Sam and Kate's old room. Dawn did not mind this arrangement, Melaka was nice enough.

Dawn woke in the morning to the sound of wood cracking and yelps coming from the direction of the living room. "YOU TRAITOROUS BITCH!" a voice Dawn recognized as Kate's yelled, followed by grunts of pain, an explosion and a loud crashing sound. _What is going on? _Dawn thought, clear awake now. "You're dead will be a good start to change the future!" Kate's voice yelled, and once again the sound of an explosion came.

Dawn quickly got up and slipped into some slippers and a nightgown. "YOU WON'T CHANGE THE FUTURE!" a second voice yelled, which Dawn recognized as Melaka's. "STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER!" a third voice yelled Dawn recognized as Sam's, followed by more crashing sounds.

Dawn hurried to the door to see what the commotion was all about, and to see if she could stop the fight which was clearly going on. "ENOUGH!" a fourth voice yelled, which Dawn recognized as Buffy's.

There was the sound of a couple of hard crashes, and a couple of yelps of pain. "I said enough!" Buffy's voice came again when Dawn descended the stairs and the scene came into view.

Willow was lying on the floor, she had some burns on her arms. Melaka was standing before her in a battle stance, she was sporting some nasty cuts on the face. Melaka pointed her raygun towards the opposite side of the room where Sam stood also in a battle stance, with a bloody nose and with his sword and ax drawn. Next to Sam Kate stood staring at Willow with anger in her eyes, her hands and arms also sporting some burns.

Dawn's first reaction to the scene was to continue what Kate had apparently started on Willow. But when she saw Buffy's face she knew better. Buffy was standing between the combatants with her hands held up to both sides sending looks both ways that would kill, if looks could kill.

"Okay, someone better explain what the hell is going on here!" Buffy said angrily. It was Kate who answered first. "Willow went native, you said so yesterday mom! We would be doing you a service to take her out now, there is no saying what she has told the King by now!" Kate said with venom in her voice. Dawn remembered seeing the images of Willow being all dark-haired and evil with the Vampire King, but the Willow in the living room had her normal red-haired appearance.

"If you gave me a change-" Willow began, but Kate cut her off "So you could run back to your King?" Kate asked dangerously.

"Kate, that is enough!" Buffy said, her eyes boring into Kate. "We are in the middle of a war, and you guys beat each other up for no good reason?" Buffy asked in a tone full of authority.

"Willow is a-" Kate began, but Buffy cut her off "I don't care!" Buffy said her voice rising in anger. "Willow is still my friend!" Buffy said in a dangerous voice.

"Her dead will change the future!" Kate yelled while preparing yet another spell. At this Melaka fired her ray gun towards Kate "You won't change my world!" Melaka yelled, but the shot missed.

"I said enough!" Buffy shouted and disarmed Melaka with a quick move and tackled Kate so she lost her concentration. "I don't care about the future, one way or another!" Buffy said angrily. "Kate, for all I care try to change it, but you won't kill Willow to do it, find some other way!" Buffy shot at Kate. "Melaka, I don't care about your world, if you want to save it, find a way to do so without endangering my daughter!" Buffy shot at Melaka.

Dawn was glad she was not on the receiving end of Buffy's anger, she could not remember seeing Buffy this angry before. "I don't care about any of the problems you might have with each other, if we want to get out of this alive we must work together, not bash each others skulls in!" Buffy said dangerously.

"Now, why don't we ask Willow for an explanation for last nights confusion?" Buffy asked, after having visibly calmed down.

Willow got slowly up from the ground, nursing her burns. "Just for the record, I do not work for the Vampire King, and I have not gone evil." Willow began. Kate opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again when she received a stern look from Buffy.

"Where were you yesterday after we went to the slayer base? I don't remember you following us." Sam asked Willow with a calm voice. The first words he had spoken since Buffy had broken up the fight.

"I put a mystical trace on the Vampire King's car, I know now where the seat of the Vampire King is. I can also tell you that there is another version of me out there, all black haired and evil. So I don't blame you for attacking me. I mean I would attack myself if..." Willow said.

"Yes" Buffy said, cutting Willow's babbling short, "Satsu came back with more accurate reports after the false alarm Kennedy gave me yesterday." Buffy continued. "But that does not change the situation, we don't know where this 'Dark Willow' came from, from an alternate dimension? Future? Past? And thus don't know what she knows, this means that we still have a red alert situation." Buffy continued.

"I... I think I know where this 'Dark Willow' came from" Kate said carefully. Everyone in the room looked towards her.

"Remember how I told you how I tried to save Willow in the future?" Kate asked, everyone nodded. "It might be possible that my little spell worked, and that that Willow has found her way into the past." Kate continued, now looking away from everyone, ashamed.

"Anyway, grab a quick bite to eat and meet me in the slayer base, I need all of you down there." Buffy said looking around to everyone who was standing in the ruined living room.

Sam walked over to Melaka and gave her his hand. "Sorry about that, have to protect my sister." Sam said to Melaka.

"You're a good man Sam, I should have done the same for my brother." Melaka answered sadly while she accepted Sam's hand. And Sam pulled Melaka to her feet.

Sam seemed unsure what to say to Melaka and just put his arms around her while they both went in the direction of the basement.

Kate, who was visibly rolling her eyes, followed Melaka and Sam.

"I still can't believe they are really Sam and Kate, yet I know they are." Buffy said while Kate disappeared towards the basement. "I'm the worse mom in history, I wasn't there for them when they needed me most." Buffy continued, clearly on the verge of tears.

Dawn wanted to say that that was not true, that it was not Buffy's fault. That Buffy was a great sister, and great mom. But Dawn could not say any of those things, so she just descended the stairs and hugged Buffy, hoping that her message would get across.

"They respect you. Even if you weren't there for them, they still respect you. Even if Kate seems a bit of a rebel, she won't go against you." Willow said while she walked towards the kitchen to grab something to eat, slightly limping. "On the other hand, they hate me." Willow continued sadly.

"You are their favorite aunt." Buffy protested. "That was last week, Buffy. Whatever I will do to them two hundred years from now, it is not good." Willow said back.

"They'll come around." Buffy said breaking away from Dawn to comfort Willow. "They'll come around." Buffy said again while hugging Willow.

"We better get ready for battle." Buffy said after a couple of minutes. Willow nodded and grabbed a piece of toast and went towards the basement. Buffy sighed, and followed.

Dawn went back upstairs to get dressed and prepare herself for the coming battle.

* * *

When Dawn was fully dressed she went down to the slayer base. She found four screens turned on. On screen one Satsu stood with grim determination on her face. On screen two Spike stood, clearly thinking something over. On screen three Giles stood cleaning his glasses. On a fourth screen images of a big hall where seen, a black-haired woman with black eyes and veins over her face was seen talking to a hooded figure, the Vampire King.

Buffy, Willow, Sam, Kate, Melaka and Kennedy stood in the control room. Many other slayers where moving around in the slayer base, from portal to portal, or arming themselves.

'... the Children of Twilight?" Giles asked just when Dawn arrived in the command center. "Yes, that is what everyone keeps calling us." Sam answered.

"T-there are some prophesies and books I will have..." Giles began. "Giles, we need to prepare for battle now, research later!" Buffy said, interrupting Giles. "O-of course, you are quite right." Giles said.

"I have activated the special weapon, we are ready to attack in about one hour." Kennedy said while she pointed towards the place where the scythe usually was hooked up. These days Buffy took the scythe with her wherever she went. "Only problem is, we can't use it. It destroys the mental powers of a slayer, the slayer dreams and memories, killing the slayer in the progress. And it can only be used by a slayer." Kennedy continued.

"Then I will carry the weapon." Melaka said. Buffy started to say something, but Melaka cut her of "I don't have slayer dreams or slayer memories, so I can't loose them." Melaka continued.

"It draws upon the powers of the demon inside slayers..." Kennedy began, "Melaka is a slayer." Buffy cut in. "Then you are the one to carry it." Kennedy said to Melaka and gave Melaka a nearly perfect replica of the scythe. _So Buffy and Willow have not been sitting idle the last four years._ Dawn thought.

"Are we really that desperate now that we use the big guns? Couldn't we have done that four years ago?" Spike asked.

"We have been working on this weapon for the last four years, and even now it is not complete." Buffy answered. "But we don't have a choice, Willow knows to much, there is no knowing what she has told the King by now." Buffy continued. "I'm standing right here!" Willow said a bit annoyed.

"Who is that?" Melaka asked before Buffy could answer. Melaka had moved towards the fourth screen and was looking at a figure towards the back of the hall that was shown on that screen. "Zoom in on that figure in the back." Melaka told no one in particular.

Satsu complied and some moments later the figure was clearly visible, the figure had black short hair, and was wearing glasses. "Harth!" Melaka said with anger and fear in her voice. "He is my brother, he got turned into a vampire four years ago." Melaka explained at the surprised looks that where turned her way. "Or two hundred years from now, or whatever." Melaka concluded while turning away from the screen.

"How are we going to get our slayer army to the seat of the Vampire King in a reasonable amount of time?" Buffy asked "At Kennedy's signal we will place a couple of beacons a couple of blocks away from the seat of the Vampire King. The portals must appear fast, or else we will be overrun before the battle even begins." Satsu said.

"Better get prepared then." Buffy said. At this the group gathered in the command center went about gathering weapons. This is when Buffy must have noticed Dawn standing there.

"You are not coming to this battle Dawn." Buffy said, Dawn wanted to protest, but she only could look annoyed towards her sister. "This will be far more dangerous then yesterday, I don't want you to get hurt." Buffy continued. Dawn couldn't believe Buffy sometimes, but there was no way she could convince her sister that she should come. So Dawn just rushed back upstairs to her room, she would be in the battle, even if she had to walk all the way to the seat of the Vampire King.

* * *

Dawn was about to open her window and sneak out of the house when the door opened. Sam and Kate came in. Dawn quickly sat down on the bed. Sam went to sit next to Dawn on the bed while Kate examined the talking machine that Willow had given to Dawn a couple of days ago.

"Look Dawn, I know how you feel, you want to fight and help, but you can't." Sam began. Dawn turned away from Sam, not wanting to hear it. "When Kate and I fled the coven my master send me from his side, but I wanted to fight next to him, help him, die with him. But I was to important to die then and there and so are you." Sam continued, Dawn still did his best to ignore Sam, but his story interested her and she looked towards him. The memory's where obviously painful for Sam.

"Today I still wished I stayed and fought, but I know that I would not be here today if I had stayed. Since that day I have done a lot of good for the world." Sam said. Dawn wanted to react, but again couldn't.

"This machine can make you talk?" Kate asked. Dawn nodded. "Doesn't work really well." Kate continued after pressing a couple of buttons and some mumbling was heard. Again Dawn nodded.

"I was trying to do something here Kate" Sam said annoyed. "Dawn is older then us and can make her own decisions Sam. If she wants to fight, that is her choice." Kate countered. Dawn wholeheartedly agreed with Kate, she was starting to like her niece.

"Okay, but this is on your head ." Sam said to Kate. "As usual." Kate said back while still holding the machine and placing a hand on Dawn's head. Dawn felt a tingling sensation going trough her, and a calming presence in her head. The sensation and presence went away when Kate removed her hand.

"Now you can use your thoughts to talk trough the machine, here, press this button." Kate said to Dawn while giving her the machine. "I can't believe that Willow hadn't thought of that." Kate continued frowning.

_Thanks_ Dawn thought while pressing the button Kate had pointed out, and to her surprise the machine in her hands repeated in a monotone but clear voice "Thanks".

Kate stood smiling. "Good, Sam and I have to get back to the slayer base." Kate said while moving out of the room. _What about me? _Dawn thought, and once again the machine repeated the thought.

Sam stood up and gave Dawn a wink before moving out of the room too, leaving a stunned Dawn behind. _Great_ Dawn thought, this time not using the machine. _Not much help after all._

Dawn put the machine away and noticed a small note attached to the machine. After Dawn had read the note she smiled and went silently back to the slayer base, while taking her talking machine, stake and crossbow with her.


	13. The Assault

**Chapter 12: The Assault**

_28th of September 2010, 10:00 AM, Slayer base_

Buffy and Willow where standing in a corner while at least 200 slayers where gathering in the slayer base. Melaka was talking to Kennedy. Sam and Kate where nowhere to be seen.

"I'm scared." Willow said to Buffy.

"It is a big battle Willow, it is okay to be scared." Buffy answered, Buffy herself wasn't quite sure if they would make it out alive this time.

"I'm not afraid of the battle, I'm afraid I will go dark." Willow said. At this Buffy looked questionable at Willow.

"Dark?" Buffy asked. "You've fought in big battles before Will, and you did not go dark." Buffy continued.

"You're dreams, the fact that my future self is all dark and talking to the King. I never believed your stories, I always believed that it would not happen, never happen, that I would not go dark, that I would not live two hundred years, now I'm not so sure anymore. And..." Willow babbled.

"Calm down Willow." Buffy said, trying to interrupt Willow. Willow had not babbled for a long time now, this meant that she was seriously distressed. "I promise you, I will not let that happen, besides, my dreams are not always literal." Buffy said trying to comfort Willow.

"I hope you are right Buffy." Willow said softly.

"Whatever happens next, let's kill the Vampire King first okay? After that we will see what we can do about you going dark." Buffy said.

Before Willow could answer Sam and Kate arrived back in the slayer base. At Kennedy's command all portals in the portal room closed down. At another command by Kennedy the portals opened again and all slayers swarmed trough one of the portals. Buffy, Willow, Melaka, Sam and Kate went trough the portal that would be opened closest to the seat of the Vampire King. Buffy was armed with the scythe, Melaka was carrying the second makeshift scythe and her ray gun, Sam was armed with his favorite sword and a small hand ax. Willow and Kate where both carrying a pouch of herbs. Everyone was also carrying portable's trough which they could communicate.

Buffy, Willow, Melaka, Sam and Kate arrived in a ruinous area of skyscrapers. Some still stood tall and proud, but windows where broken in them, and it looked like the stood empty. On other blocks where there should be skyscrapers was only a mass of ruins. There where black clouds all around that nearly made breathing impossible. The sun could not break trough these clouds.

Buffy tried to keep her breath, trying to not breath in the toxic clouds.

"You can breathe here mom." Kate said softly. "The smoke just stops the sun from shining trough.". Buffy took a few careful breaths and noticed that she could breath normally. But the news that the sun would not be on their side was not news Buffy could use.

"I was hoping on sunlight." Buffy said, thinking that their one advantage had just been taken away.

"In about one hour we have sunlight here." Willow said while looking towards the west. Buffy looked towards the west too, but did not see anything interesting but an abandoned skyscraper.

"Buffy, do your thing, we are in position." Kennedy said through the portable. Buffy did not waste any time and moved towards the east where Willow said that the Seat of the Vampire King would be. Willow, Melaka, Sam, Kate and a dozen slayers followed.

After half a hour the group arrived just outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or at least what was left of it. The building itself still stood, but it looked earie in the smoke that now surrouned it. A big group of vampires where gathered before the front entrance.

"The seat is in there?" Buffy asked. Willow nodded. "Okay, time to do what we do best." Buffy said while signing her group to attack.

Melaka, Sam and Buffy rushed towards the big group of vampires with their weapons drawn. Buffy saw from the corner of her eyes that Willow had flown up in the air to give support from there, while Kate was casting protective spells.

When the Vampires noticed Buffy running towards them all hell broke loose. Buffy soon lost track of what everyone was doing. She fought like she had never fought before. Buffy felt the slayer in herself awakening and her scythe humming in her hands. After dusting at least half a dozen vampires Buffy looked around the battlefield, Buffy noticed that they had made no progress at all towards the entrance of the museum. For every vampire that got dusted at least two took it's place. At least half a dozen slayers had already fallen, and reinforcements weren't coming their way for some time, Buffy hoped that the slayers that would flank the building had more success.

Just when Buffy was getting desperate the clouds drifted apart and the sun came trough and the tide of battle quickly turned in the slayers favor when more then half of the vampires outside burst into flames. A small group made it inside. Buffy, Melaka, Sam, Willow, Sam and what was left of their group of slayers followed inside.

When Buffy entered the museum she noticed that most of the art that used to house in the museum was destroyed. Where there used to be statues, there was rubble, where there used to be paintings, there where scorch marks. Buffy had never seen the museum when it was operational, but nonetheless she was saddened to see all the art destroyed.

Buffy expected to be ambushed once inside, but instead she noticed three figures walking down a flight of stairs. One of the figures was none other then the Vampire King himself, the second figure was a vampire who was wearing glasses and had black hair. The last figure was Dark Willow.

"Welcome to my castle." the King said while spreading his arms in welcome. "You shall not leave here alive." the King said smiling.

"We are in." Buffy said into her portable, before addressing the Vampire King. "You know, for someone who is all powerful, you sure like to hide your face." Buffy said.

"We shall learn a lot about ourselves today." Dark Willow said while looking over the group. The Vampire King dropped his hood and took away his sun-glasses.

Willow let out a gasp, Buffy dropped her head, she had so hoped that she was wrong. When Buffy looked up she looked in to the vampire face of none other then Xander Harris.

"Y-you died." Willow said, clearly still not believing what she saw. Buffy looked towards Willow and saw that she was looking pale.

"Gee, we are observant today aren't we Will?" Xander sneered.

Before anyone could react at least four dozen slayers came crashing trough the windows. Immediately the battle started in all honesty. Dark Willow fled back up the stairs as soon as the battle started and Buffy followed. Buffy saw that Melaka attacked the vampire with the glasses, while Willow attacked Xander. Sam and Kate where both fighting a group of vampires each.

Buffy caught up with Dark Willow in a corridor where bits of the wall where missing, she was looking down into the hallway where the battle was in full progress.

"So, is this your idea of a good show?" Buffy asked angrily. Dark Willow looked towards her and gave a small smile, but Buffy saw sadness in Dark Willow's eyes.

"You truly think that I enjoy all this death?" Dark Willow asked while she gestured towards the raging battle below. "Over the years I have seen so much death and decay that I simply don't care anymore." Dark Willow continued while turning back to watch the battle.

Buffy did not know what to say and looked at the battle, realizing she should be down in the battle, instead of talking to Dark Willow. But Buffy wanted answers.

"What do you want?" Buffy asked to Dark Willow.

"The same thing you want." Dark Willow answered._ Great, cryptic answers_ Buffy thought.

"Okay, what do I want?" Buffy asked.

"Death. Just like every slayer want's death" Dark Willow answered while she eyed the scythe Buffy was holding. _Of course, it is always about death_ Buffy thought.

"I'll could just kill you and be done with it, this time Kate does not have time to save you." Buffy said threateningly.

"Go ahead." Dark Willow said, again eying the scythe. Buffy could see that Dark Willow meant it, and that dead threats where not going to give her answers.

"No, I won't do that yet. I need some answers first." Buffy began. Dark Willow just turned back to watch the battle. "Can you be saved?" Buffy asked.

"You know how to save me." Dark Willow answered, once again Dark Willow's eyes went to the scythe. It was then that Buffy realized she had phrased the question wrongly.

"I mean, can I save Willow?" Buffy said while pointing towards where Willow was fighting.

"The future is not set in stone." Dark Willow answered. This gave Buffy some hope, but things did not make sense yet.

"You have been talking to Xander, what did you tell him?" Buffy asked.

"I would suggest you ask Xander yourself." Dark Willow answered, with the slightest tone of amusement in her voice.

Buffy looked towards the fight and did not see Xander or Willow anywhere. Buffy quickly picked her portable to contact Kennedy.

"Kennedy, can your hear me?" Buffy asked.

"Loud and clear." Kennedy answered.

"Can you..." Buffy began just when she looked up to Dark Willow. Dark Willow was looking intently towards Buffy with a small smile on her face and a slightest glimmer in her eyes.

Buffy saw then what might happen if Xander should be captured, questioned, maybe even ensouled. Buffy realized that she could not put Xander trough the process of redemption, the pain of a soul, the guilt of his actions would destroy him. Buffy also saw that ensouling was exactly what Dark Willow wanted. And Buffy was not going to give Dark Willow what she wanted.

"Buffy?" Kennedy's voice came trough the portable. Buffy gave a quick punch to Dark Willow and knocked her unconscious. "Turn the King to dust." Buffy said into the portable.


	14. To Kill a King

**Chapter 13: To Kill a King**  
_28th of September 2010 11:30 AM, Seat of the Vampire King, Manhattan, New York  
_

"We shall learn a lot about ourselves today." Dark Willow said while looking over the group. The Vampire King dropped his hood and took away his sun-glasses.

Willow could not believe what she saw, it was impossible. She let out a gasp, she was looking at Xander Harris in vampire form.

"Y-you died." Willow said while panic was flooding in her.

"Gee, we are observant today aren't we Will?" Xander sneered.

Before anyone could react at least four dozen slayers came crashing trough the windows. Immediately the battle started in all honesty. Dark Willow fled back up the stairs as soon as the battle started and Willow saw Buffy follow her.

Willow did not notice much about the battle that erupted around her, all she could see was Xander laughing at her. It was as though everything was happening in slow motion. Willow's brain seemed to have stopped working. Once Willow regained her senses she charged forward straight at Xander. She did not know whether it was to hug him, or to attack him. If it was the right thing to do, or foolish. The only reason Willow survived was maybe cause Xander was to surprised at the sudden attack to react.

Willow collided with Xander and they both tumbled further down the stairs into a floor below the actual battle. "Right, if I knew you would jump me the moment you saw me, I would have prepared a bed." Xander said mockingly.

Willow was seeming with rage and confusion. She knew that it was not Xander lying on the floor next to her, that Xander was dead. That the thing talking was the demon that had killed him. But on the other hand it was Xander, the missing eye, the black hair, the usually kind looking face contorted by the vampire ridges.

Willow got up quickly and pulled out a stake and advanced on Xander.

"Going to kill me Will? Your best friend since kindergarten? Your high-school crush?" Xander asked in his mocking voice. At each of Xander's words Willow's resolve to kill him lessened.

"What happened?" Willow asked in a shaky voice. At this Xander stood up and there was anger in his remaining eye.

"After you left me to rot in the hell mouth, a vampire came, he liberated me." Xander said in a menacing voice. "And now you will join me, so we can be together again." Xander said while charging towards Willow.

Willow rolled out of the way just in time. At that moment the battle above was coming down the stairs. Sam and Kate where being backed down the stairs, and Kennedy came hurtling down some other stairs with a group of vampires following her. The group of vampires where followed by another group of slayers.

Xander stopped just in time before he had charged straight into the wall and turned towards Willow again. Willow knew now what to do. They would capture Xander and then return his soul. Willow would never be able to live with herself if Xander died today.

At that moment the portable on Kennedy's belt gave a beep, Kennedy picked it up. Buffy's voice was heard from the other side. "Kennedy, can your hear me?" Buffy's voice asked.

"Loud and clear." Kennedy answered.

"Can you..." Buffy's voice came again, but was interrupted. Several things happened at once.

Before Willow could do anything an emotionless low voice said "Die bastard." And Xander turned to dust before Willow's eyes. Dawn appeared behind the dust cloud that was Xander, holding a stake in her hand like she had just dusted a vampire. And a soft thud was heard from the portable in Kennedy's hand.

An anger like Willow had never felt before was raging inside her. All the anger was directed at the woman who stood there with grim satisfaction on her face and a stake in her hand, All Willow wanted was to rip this woman apart. Before Willow could do anything she felt a pain in her head, and she fell herself fall down. The last thing Willow heard before she lost consciousness was Buffy's voice coming from the portable saying "Turn the King to dust.".

* * *

When Willow came to the first thing she noticed was that she was lying on a couch. She thought that perhaps it had all been a bad dream, that the battle had not happened yet, that Xander was not a vampire at all.

But when Willow opened her eyes such hopes where gone. Melaka was sitting on the sofa next to Sam, both where bruised and where talking in low voices. Kate and Buffy where near the dinner table having some sort of discussion. Dawn was sitting at the table, the only person looking like there had been a victory.

Willow sat up slowly, and the moment that everyone realized that she was awake, all eyes fell on Willow and everyone was silent.

"What is going on?" Willow asked.

"We where afraid you had turned evil." Sam said looking at Willow warily.

"Evil?" Willow asked confused.

"You don't remember?" Sam asked looking worried.

"I remember fighting Xander, I remember him turning to dust, I remember Dawn standing there, and I remember a lot of anger going trough me." Willow answered _And Buffy's voice saying to turn the king to dust._ Willow thought.

"That was when I knocked you out. You're hair had turned black and it looked like you where going to murder Dawn on the spot." Sam said as an explanation. "I'm sorry for that." Sam continued. The apology sounded sincere.

"What was Dawn doing at the battle?" Willow asked, she remembered that Buffy had told her no.

"Kate thought it was a good idea to turn Dawn invisible and bring her along for the battle." Buffy answered, she did not sound happy about this.

"She is old enough to make her own decisions!" Kate said annoyed. It seemed that the argument she had with Buffy was about this. "And if it wasn't for her we would be fighting still." Kate continued.

"We could have saved Xander." Willow said looking at Kate and Buffy who where both shaking their heads. "We could have ensouled him." Willow continued.

"No we couldn't Will, It would have been torture for him. I couldn't put Xander trough that." Buffy said in the form of an explanation.

"And Dawn killed him?" Melaka asked, the first time she had spoken since Willow woke up. "I don't know who this 'Xander' is, but he must have been important to you guys." Melaka continued.

"He was our Willlow's and my best friend, and Dawn's boyfriend." Buffy answered.

"He was not." an emotionless low voice said, that Willow recognized from the battle. It took a while before Willow realized that the voice came from the machine that Dawn was holding. "He was not your friend or my boyfriend, he was a murdering bastard who deserved what he got." the machine continued.

"Don't speak about Xander like that!" Willow said again feeling anger coming. Dawn got up looking angry. She ran up the stairs and everyone heard a door slam. Willow sat down slowly, trying to control herself.

"What was that all about?" Sam asked after a couple of minutes of surprised silence.

"Denial, first stage of grief." Kate answered slowly.

"She is a brave girl." Melaka said. Everyone nodded in agreement to this statement. "She did what I should have done to Harth. I had him cornered, I was ready to give him the poke, but I remembered the good times we used to have, the man he used to be, and couldn't do it." Melaka continued, clearly holding back tears. "So Harth got away." Melaka concluded sadly.

"Don't worry, we will find him, and then we will kill him." Buffy said in a reassuring tone.

"No, if someone has to kill him, it will be me. I just have to be strong about it!" Melaka said defiantly.

"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it, we have other worries now. We have a dark version of Willow in the slayer base prisons, what are we going to do with her?" Kate asked.

"You captured my future self?" Willow asked, it might be that she was able to give some answers about the future.

"I will question her tomorrow, meanwhile we all should get some rest." Buffy said.

"I'll talk to Dawn, I owe her an apology." Willow said, she got up and went to Dawn's room.

When Willow arrived in Dawn's room she found Dawn sitting on her bed looking at an old photo album.

"Dawn, can I come in?" Willow asked uncertainly. To Willow's relief Dawn nodded. "I think I owe you an apology." Willow began when she walked further into the room. Dawn looked up and Willow saw that she was confused.

"I should have realized how much Xander had meant for you." Willow said sitting down on the bed beside Dawn. Dawn nodded and looked back at the photo album.

Willow saw that Dawn was looking at old photo's of Xander. A photo taken in their sophomore year of sunnydale high on which Xander was chasing Dawn in the high-school library, a photo taken in their junior year of high-school Xander lifting Dawn while at the pier, a photo where Xander stood outside a destroyed sunnydale high with the yearbook, with Dawn next to him. And a lot of other photo's with Xander and Dawn.

Dawn picked up her talking machine and pressed a button on it. "Has this happened?" asked the emotionless tone of the machine. Willow did not know how to answer that. The truth was that half of what was shown on the photo's never actually happened, cause Dawn did not exist then. Willow found it a strange time to return to Dawn's old identity problems. Willow had thought that Dawn was already over that.

"I know that I did not exist back then." the machine said while Dawn pointed at the photo's taken during high-school. "But I don't remember that man." the machine continued while Dawn pointed at Xander.

Willow was stumped at what was happening. Dawn did not remember Xander? "I remember that that man had one eye, I remember how he abused me, I remember that he hurt me, I remember that he slit my throat, I remember staking him." the machine said. Still Willow did not say anything while the machine seemed to go on a monologue on it's own. Was the machine telling Willow Dawn's thoughts?

"What kind of machine is that Dawn?" Willow asked. _Great, Dawn confesses her worries about Xander, and I ask about a stupid machine. _Willow thought angrily to herself.

"Kate fixed it for me, it can now sound my thoughts." the machine answered. At this Willow felt even more stupid, why hadn't she thought of that?

"Dawn, I'm sorry, I did not know, I did not think..." Willow began, but Dawn shook her head.

"Xander must have meant a lot to you." the machine said while Dawn pointed to some photo's with Xander and Willow. "I just wish I remembered it." the machine continued.

Willow could not hold it back anymore and hugged Dawn tightly and started to cry. Cry out the frustrations of the past week.


	15. Plans of a Witch

**Chapter 14: Plans of a Witch  
**_28th of September 2010 12:00 AM, Sewers, Manhattan, New York_

Harth Fray was furious, once again he was betrayed, once again he was misled. He should have been leading an army of vampires and demons to victory, instead he was crawling trough the sewers of Haddyn, or Manhattan as it was called, in a time he did not belong in.

All plans had gone to hell thanks to one woman, and this time it was not Melaka Fray, no it was the so called 'Black Hope' as Harth had called her. She had used him for her own schemes, her own fun. The so called 'Vampire King' showed promise to be a powerful ally, except that he was turned to dust just fifteen minutes ago, and the Black Hope was nowhere to be found.

With these thoughts going trough his head Harth crawled trough the sewers, searching for some rats to keep up his strength. Harth was furious he had been reduced to this, scavenging rats in the sewers, like some bottom feeder of a lurk.

Things looked pretty hopeless for Harth until he smelled a human who was walking around in the sewers. Following the enticing smell of human blood Harth came upon a brunette woman and two men.

Using all stealth Harth could muster he sprung one of the men and broke his neck and moved on to the other men and drank him raw. The woman just looked on, not running, but rather looking on interested.

When Harth was done feeding the woman spoke. "Well, well, you have power, but yet you are here in these sewers, why?".

Harth looked at the woman and wondered why she was not running or fighting. "What is it to you?" Harth asked.

"Just curious, I'm Amy by the way." the woman said. Then Harth smelled something he had also smelled on the Black Hope. This was a woman of power.

"You have power too, you have nothing to give me, I should just kill you and get it on with." Harth said in his most threatening voice.

"And you will just waste away in a sewer, I can help you." Amy said. Harth had a bad feeling about this, the last time he trusted a human being of power everything went wrong.

"I have experience with your kind, all you can give me are lies, I rather risk the sewers." Harth said.

"So you met my kind before?" Amy asked in a curious tone. "Let me guess, you met dear Willow Rosenburg?".

That name stirred something in Harths memory, a memory he connected to the Black Hope, and the slayer of this time. "She spun me big time, it is thanks to her that I'm now stuck in these sewers." Harth said.

"Ah yes, that sounds like Willow alright, I have experience with her, you want to bring her down?" Amy asked "I have just the way."

"Why should I trust you?" Harth asked, he did not want to make the same mistake twice.

"Because without me you will not leave these sewers, without me you won't get your revenge, without me you will probably have to do on rats for the foreseeable future." Amy said.

"How will you go about revenge?" Harth asked, considering the offer carefully.

"Easy, we will bring this world down around her, apocalypse style." Amy said. An apocalypse, what Harth had seen from this world it was pretty much already in ruins, making an apocalypse quite redundant.

"Have you been out of these sewers lately Amy? This world is pretty much already in ruins." Harth said.

"Yes, but where are the Old Ones?" Amy countered. _The Old Ones_? Now she had Harths full attention.

"The Old Ones? Can we bring them back?" Harth asked, the only way he knew of was the gateway he tried to summon.

"The boundaries are unstable, time itself is being ripped apart, and to maintain time the boundaries between the hell dimensions and this dimension are weakening, despite the fact that the seed of hell has been destroyed." Amy said.

"So now is the time to weaken the barriers even more to bring the old masters to this world." Harth finished Amy's thoughts. "And how will I know you will not spin me like Willow did?" Harth asked, still dubious about Amy's loyalties.

Amy threw a small golden statue at Harth which he caught. "In this statue my mother has been captured, this is my most prized possession, I give it to you in keeping, so I have to stick with you if I ever want it back." Amy said.

Harth looked down at the statue and noticed that it's eyes seemed to be moving. This statue was the only reassurance Harth needed that Amy was telling him the truth, that she would not betray him like Willow had done. But now other questions had to be answered.

"How are we going to bring the Old Ones back?" Harth asked.

"Easy, we are going to use the Children of Twilight." Amy answered. Again that triggered a memory in Harth, a memory of two small children, children of a slayer.

"And where are these Children of Twilight?" Harth asked, he knew now that he had missed something important.

"I tried to get my hands om them last week, but Willow was smarter then me, but now I can sense them again, they where at the battle just about one hour ago." Amy said. _If they where, I did not see them_ Harth thought. "But I think we don't have to get our hands on them, they will come to us, all we have to do is wait." Amy concluded.


	16. Truth and Lies

**Chapter 15: Truth and Lies  
**_28h of September 2010, 8:00 PM, 140th avenue, Queens, New York_

Buffy was sitting in the sitting room of their home, looking forlorn at her hands, unsure of what to do. Willow had retreated to her room after diner, Sam and Melaka where out patrolling for stray vampires and Kate was researching ways to bring Dawn's Memory back.

Willow had reported that Dawn could not remember anything about Xander, except what happened the last 4 years. And to top it all, a dark version of Willow was in the holding cells of the slayer base, and Buffy had no idea how to go about getting the information she wanted.

This brought on a new series of questions for Buffy, what information did she want? Should she try to change the future, or preserve it with Willow going dark? Or could she save the future while making sure Willow did not go dark? That would make sure Melaka was happy. But Kate wanted to make sure the future she came from did not happen, with good reason one would say. What happened to her? What happened to Sam? What did Dark Willow do to them?

Dark Willow had said to 'talk to Xander', but doing so would play in the machinations of Dark Willow, or so Buffy thought at that moment. Now that option was out. The choices where made, now she had to live with it.

At that moment arguing voices could be heard coming down the stairs. "There is nothing we can do." Willow's voice came. "And why not? You made more then one mistake concerning Dawn already!" Kate's voice followed.

"The spell you mean is not very subtle, it would erase all memory charms." Willow countered.

"And that is a bad thing because?" Kate asked. At this the two people came rushing into the living room.

"Cause then you will erase the first 14 years of Dawn's life." Buffy answered. This brought Kate up short.

"So you are telling me that Dawn's life is a lie? I wonder what her real life was like." Kate said getting more angry by the minute. Buffy wondered what Kate was going on about, but then remembered that Kate did not know about the Key.

"Kate, are you familiar with the Key?" Buffy asked. This brought Kate up short, whatever she was expecting, that was not it.

"The key? The key to what?" Kate asked an uncomprehending look on her face.

"Dawn is the Key, the Key that keeps all dimensions in their own world, the Key that can make all dimensions bleed together. She was sent to me as a fourteen old sister for protection, this was ten years ago." Buffy Explained. Kate looked incredulously at Buffy and sat down hard on the couch.

"Then I can't help her, the memory charm of the Vampire King is such that it is interwoven with the other memory charms on her, those that contain the first 14 years of her life. Removing one, removes them all. I know no other way." Kate said.

"Alas, I have to agree with Kate on this, there is no other way that I know of. I'm not very well versed in the mind magics." Willow supplied.

"So Dawn will never remember Xander?" Buffy said while sitting down. "O, well, nothing we can do about that, might ask Giles to look into it later." Buffy continued.

At that moment the phone rang, Willow took it, and talked with whoever was on the other side of the line. After talking for a couple of minutes Willow hung up the phone and looked at Buffy.

"Dark Willow wants to talk to you Buffy." Willow said. Buffy looked up at this.

"Let's go down to the slayer base, you two can keep watch over the camera's to see of Dark Willow tries anything." Buffy said.

Kate, Willow and Buffy moved towards the slayer base. Kate and Willow remained in the control room, while Buffy moved towards the holding cells where Dark Willow was kept.

When Buffy opened the cell doors Dark Willow stood up and turned towards with an no emotions showing on her face. "The last of the slayers has come to see me." Willow said to no one in particular.

"You wanted to talk to me, so talk." Buffy said, already starting to get annoyed.

"You made an interesting decision, but not one that will give you answers." Dark Willow continued, as though Buffy had not spoken at all.

"Answers you can also give me." Buffy countered, she had no time for mind games. "And I will not leave this cell till you give those answers." Buffy continued.

"For there to be an answer, there must be a question." Dark Willow said expectantly.

"Okay, so here's a question, how do I make sure Willow does not go dark?" Buffy asked.

"I would say ask Xander, but that is out of the question now isn't it?" Dark Willow answered, Buffy could have sworn she sounded smug.

"Yeah, so I'm asking you!" Buffy said, quickly loosing her patience.

"To save a life, to destroy a world." Dark Willow answered cryptically.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Buffy asked annoyed.

"Balance Buffy, honestly, have you lost intelligence over the years?" Dark Willow asked in a snide voice.

"Are you ever going to give me a straight answer, or do I have to knock it out of you?" Buffy growled while picking up Dark Willow and slamming her into the wall.

"Man handling me isn't going to get you answers." Dark Willow said, still no emotions showing on her face.

"I don't have time for this!" Buffy yelled and dropped Dark Willow unceremoniously on the ground, and stomped out of the cell, and towards the control room.

When Buffy came back in the control room she saw that Kate, Willow and Kennedy had watched the conversation. Willow looked apologetic, Kate looked thoughtful, and Kennedy looked frustrated.

"Well, that was bracing." Willow said sarcastically.

"Don't you start too Willow." Buffy snapped at Willow, at once feeling bad and calming down somewhat.

"Okay, no need to jump at me, how about I try to talk to my darker alter ego?" Willow asked.

"Okay, if you think you can have more luck." Buffy answered, while she looked towards the monitor that showed Dark Willow's cell.

Dark Willow was still sitting where Buffy had left her, looking as though she did not care what happened to her next.

Willow moved away from the monitors towards the dungeons, a few minutes later she showed up on the monitor.

Willow went and sat down across from Dark Willow, only then did Dark Willow look up.

"The destroyer of worlds came to see me." Dark Willow again said to no one in particular.

Buffy nearly scoffed at the title Dark Willow gave her friend.

"I would ask you to explain that title, but I don't think I want to know." Willow said in a calm voice. "Though I have a couple of questions." Willow continued.

Buffy waited for Willow to begin, but instead of asking questions, Willow just sat there looking into the eyes of Dark Willow. Getting impatient Buffy made to move towards the microphone, but Kate stopped her.

"Don't interrupt, no matter what happens!" Kate hissed dangerously, apparently something magic was going on down there.

After what seemed to Buffy like an eternity Willow asked her first question "Are you my future?" Buffy found this a strange question, even she could answer it.

"I'm your past." Dark Willow answered. This answer threw Buffy for a loop, trying to understand what Dark Willow meant by that. Looking over to Kate told Buffy to keep quiet.

"If I change the past, will the future stay the same?" Willow asked. Again, Buffy would be able to answer that question without to much trouble, changing the past changes the future, at least that is what Buffy always understood.

"Change the future, and you will change the past." Dark Willow answered. Once again Buffy was confused by the answer. The only conclusion Buffy could make was that Dark Willow was toying with Willow.

"She is not making sense!" Kennedy shouted frustrated, apparently she shared Buffy's opinion.

"Hush! I'm trying to follow it!" Kate hissed annoyed.

Buffy wanted to argue back, but looked towards the monitor when Willow asked her third question "Are you and I the same?" Willow asked. Buffy did not like where this question was going, but she could not interrupt.

"We are as different as day and night." Dark Willow answered. Buffy let out a breath she did not know she was holding. They where different, there was no reason that Willow would ever become dark. Except that Willow's next words crushed that hope.

"We are two sides of the same coin." Willow said. Again Buffy worried about the direction of the conversation "You and I are one, you are my night, I'm your day." Willow continued and stood up.

"You and I are one, you are my day, I'm your night." Dark Willow answered and stood up. Buffy also stood up wary about what was about to happen. But nothing could have prepared her for what happened next.

"We are one" Willow and Dark Willow said and embraced. At that moment the cell exploded with magic, and the monitor only showed snow. Panicking Kennedy ran down to the cell, Buffy was about to follow but was frozen to the spot by Kate. When the monitor came back on Kennedy was kneeling next to a motionless Willow, Dark Willow was nowhere to be found.

Kate and Buffy ran down to the cell, Kate came there first. "FOOL! You interrupted them! Now there is nothing we can get from Dark Willow!" Kate yelled at Kennedy.

When Kennedy looked up Buffy saw tears running down her face "Is that all you care about Kate? Information? In case you haven't noticed yet, Willow is dead!" Kennedy shouted back at Kate.

Buffy stopped in her tracks and looked unbelieving at the red head lying in Kennedy's arms. Willow Dead? Impossible.


	17. Grief

_**Part 4: Life and Death**_

**Chapter 16: Grief  
**_28h of September 2010, 9:00 PM, Slayer Base_

_Denial_

Kate stood dumb struck in the cell where just minutes before Willow and Dark Willow merged in a catalyst of magic. Kennedy in her ignorance interrupted the ritual, and now Dark Willow was gone, and Willow lay dead in Kennedy's arms. Kate did not know if she should be happy, cause Willow was a big catalyst in the future she came from, or sad that the change of the future should come at such a cost.

Buffy still stood at the door as though lightning had struck her. She hadn't moved since Kennedy's outburst. She was slowly shaking her head as tough doing so would make what she was seeing not true.

Kate turned back towards Kennedy, who looked expectantly at Kate as tough expecting her to explain what happened. It was a couple of minutes later that Kate realized that Kennedy had asked just that.

"Due to your interruption Kennedy, the magic overloaded and killed Willow out right, instead of merging Willow and Dark Willow as was her intention. If the ritual was uninterrupted, then Willow would have had all the knowledge Dark Willow had, and maybe she would have been more willing to part with it." Kate explained.

Kate's monologue seemed to bring Buffy out of her stupor as she uttered one word "No!"

Buffy ran towards Willow's body and knocked Kennedy out of the way, what followed nearly made Kate sick. Buffy was rocking Willow's body willing her to wake up, Kennedy tried to pry her away from Willow, without much luck.

"She's dead mom." Kate said slowly, trying to get trough to her. At that Buffy stood up and turned towards Kennedy, true anger in her eyes. But if it was in reaction to what Kennedy was doing, or due to Kate's words, Kate would never know.

* * *

_Anger_

"YOU KILLED HER!" Buffy yelled in an inhuman voice and charged towards Kennedy who had backed away a few paces so she could make her defense.

Kate wanted to point out that Buffy also nearly ran and interrupted the ritual, but did not do so. She just watched as the two slayers engaged in what looked like a fight for life and death. Standing ready to cast protection magic or healing magic if needed. She knew that both slayers had to get it out of their system.

"You think this is my fault? Kate brought that Dark Willow back to this time!" Kennedy shouted in between hits.

"You interrupted the ritual!" Buffy countered while continuing to deliver pain on Kennedy.

"You where also about to!" Kennedy countered while dodging in such a way that Buffy hit the wall with one of her fists.

This seemed to calm Buffy down a bit as she turned towards Kate.

Kate was concerned when she still saw the anger in Buffy's eyes, but this time it was directed at her.

"You knew this would happen the moment Willow went down here didn't you?" Buffy asked in a dangerous tone. "DIDN'T YOU?" she shouted when Kate did not answer.

"I thought it was a possibility." Kate answered as calm as possible.

"You think it is a good thing she is dead don't you?" Buffy asked with venom as she advanced upon Kate.

"Now the future is saved." Kate said, but at once Kate knew she had said exactly the wrong thing, as she had just lost all the air in her lungs as Buffy plunged her fist into Kate's stomach.

Grasping for breath Kate knew she had to give Buffy some hope that Willow could come back, how impossible it was to raise the dead, she knew if she wanted to live today she had to do it.

* * *

_Bargaining_

After some time Kate finally managed to erect a protective barrier so that she had some reprieve from the onslaught of hits Kate received from Buffy.

"Hiding behind magic witch?" Buffy taunted.

"No, there might be a way to bring Willow back, it is a mystical dead." Kate said desperately for the tenth time already. The previous times she never got the whole sentence out due to an enraged Buffy.

"Yes, there might be a way so don't waste my time and FIND IT!" Buffy shouted. Kate ran from the cell as fast as she could, she did not see Buffy sag beside the body of Willow. Kate ran trough the slayer base, receiving strange looks from other slayers who where traveling trough, to the house of Buffy and Willow.

Here she retreated to her room where she saw a brown-haired woman waiting.

"Hello aunt Maddy." Kate greeted the brown-haired woman. Aunt Maddy was the one who had trained Kate in all the magics she knew. She died in the fire that consumed the coven. But trough magics aunt Maddy was able to astral project herself to Kate, like she had done often before.

"Did they take your advice concerning Dawn?" aunt Maddy asked.

"No, they did not. She is the Key, so they did not want to erase the first 14 years of her life." Kate answered grabbing the topic and running with it, since she did not want to think about the events down in the holding cells of the slayer base at the moment.

"She is the Key you say? The Key that holds all dimensions together?" aunt Maddy asked with interest.

"Yes, that is how Buffy explained it." Kate answered, not noticing the greedy glint in aunt Maddy's eyes.

"Well, that is certainly a interesting turn of events. Something we can use to save the future." aunt Maddy said in a thoughtful voice. Finally aunt Maddy looked towards Kate.

"But that is not why you came here is it? You are not here to report." aunt Maddy said in observation.

"No, Willow is dead." Kate stated. She could have sworn she saw a glint of victory in aunt Maddy's eyes, but a moment later it was gone.

"And Dark Willow?" aunt Maddy asked.

"Vanished, no trace of her. She should have merged with Willow, but the ritual was interrupted." Kate said in answer. Where there was a glint of victory in aunt Maddy's eyes, there was now a dull ache of defeat. But this also was gone the next moment.

"Then our only hope to get her information is to try and resurrect Willow, but this will not be easy." aunt Maddy said.

Kate was already thinking of methods of resurrection. The method with the best and surest result was with the urn of Osiris, but the only one in existence was destroyed in the ritual that brought Buffy back to life. Other methods tested the willingness of the one who was resurrected to give anything in return for the life to resurrect. And Kate was not willing to give much in return of Willow's life.

"The urn of Osiris is destroyed, and the other method's don't work, I don't want to pay such high prices for her resurrection." Kate said in defeat.

"Is the information important to you or not?" aunt Maddy said annoyed.

"Very, but you know the methods other then the urn test your loyalty and love for the subject, but I have neither towards Willow." Kate stated.

"I see, but there is someone who has that loyalty and love, and who would do anything to bring her back." aunt Maddy said in a maddening calm and slow voice.

And then it hit Kate, Buffy. Buffy would do anything to bring Willow back, especially in the mood she was now. If anyone could bring Willow back to life, it would be Buffy.

"Yes, Buffy. She can do the trials of Osiris." Kate said more to herself then to aunt Maddy.

"Now we are talking! Let her try. If she fails, we don't have to deal with her. If she succeeds, we can see if Willow remembers any of the information." aunt Maddy said. Kate agreed, but did not like how aunt Maddy said 'deal with her', but let it slide, since aunt Maddy did not show any sign that she said anything strange.

Kate rummaged trough her supplies and found what she was looking for, the Amulet of Osiris, and went back down to the slayer base and to the cell where Willow still lay dead.

When Kate approached the cell she heard Buffy cry "Why are you dead Willow? How can you kill me when you are dead? How can I kill you if you are dead? How am I supposed to fight on with you lying cold?" Buffy said trough her tears.

Kate carefully approached Buffy with the amulet.

"Here mom, with this amulet you can bring her back. Call upon Osiris, call upon a trial. Tell him what you are willing to give to bring Willow back." Kate said while giving the amulet to Buffy.

Buffy took the amulet from Kate and put it on. She stood up with a new purpose and started yelling to the skies.

"Osiris, I call into question the dead of Willow Rosenberg, I call upon you for a trial, I would do anything to bring her back!" Buffy yelled.

A harsh booming voice answered "You want to bring back the witch? You are willing to pay anything? Let's see what you are willing to pay!" and with that there was a loud bang and a white flash, and Buffy fainted.

Kate rushed towards Buffy and found that she was not breathing. Kate was not concerned though, Buffy was now in the trials, and she would know if Buffy failed or succeeded. Unfortunately Kennedy, who was watching, was not so understanding, and attacked.

"Kennedy wait, Buffy might come back, we have to keep them warm!" Kate yelled while putting up a barrier. "Please, do this for Buffy and Willow." Kate pleaded. This seemed to calm the slayer down, though she looked skeptical, but nonetheless complied.


	18. Trial and Error

**Chapter 17: Trial and Error  
**_28h of September 2010, 9:00 PM, Purgatory_

Willow slowly opened her eyes, confirming that she could see. She felt that she was lying on something. After a few moments consideration she saw that she was lying on the floor. And that she could lie on the floor.

After a couple more moments she realized she was naked, but this did not bother her. Though the thought of some clothes was not wrong. No sooner had she thought this, or she was clothed in white linen.

Slowly Willow stood up and saw that she was on a glade, there was nothing else, there did not need to be anything else. She felt peaceful, complete and happy.

"I have been waiting for you." a voice that sounded like music said. A voice Willow had not heard in more then 8 years.

"Tara?" Willow asked, she tried to be surprised or scared, but such feelings where quickly dismissed in this place.

"Yes, sweetie, I'm here." Tara said while she came into view. She was more beautiful then Willow remembered. She was wearing white robes that accentuated her blonde hair. Her blue eyes where twinkling with happiness. Her mouth was in her typical shy Tara smile. Or that was how Willow called it.

Willow did not take time to think, or to consider the how or what. She ran towards Tara and embraced her and then kissed her. Familiar feelings coursed trough Willow, she was finally home.

"I missed you." Willow managed to say after they broke apart after a while. It was then that her brain caught up to her senses and Willow started to wonder what was happening.

"Aren't you dead?" Willow asked suddenly pulling away, and looking around, then another thought struck Willow "Am I dead?" Willow asked, not really feeling as if the answer was important.

"Yes, and yes, I'm here to bring you home." Tara said with a smile. While pointing towards a big archway. When they approached the archway it suddenly closed. Tara turned towards Willow questioningly. "Apparently you are not allowed in yet." Tara said with a tone of sadness.

"If that is the gate to heaven, then I could imagine I'm not allowed in there." Willow said sadly. It seemed that her crimes followed her even to the afterlife.

"A good deduction witch!" a harsh booming voice said from behind them. A man with a black goatee and a white long hat, dressed in white robes walked towards the two witches.

"You defied me one to many times witch, first you resurrected your slayer, to the cost of the world, then you tried to defy me to spare the life of you're love, damaging me in the process. But now you are finally under my mercy, if I decide to give it to you, I'm Osiris, keeper of the dead." the man said in that same voice.

"You will grant him access to heaven, or I will report this to my superiors Osiris!" Tara said in a commanding voice.

"O? And who are you reporting to? Wolfram and Hart?" Osiris said mockingly.

"No, I report to the Powers That Be." Tara said, her voice filled with pride.

"The Powers That Be? Hah, they know better then to cross me. This witch is not allowed into heaven till I'm done with her, and that is final, not even the 'almighty' Powers That Be can deny me that." Osiris said in a scoffing tone.

Before Osiris could make good on his threats another voice echoed across the clearing "Osiris, I call into question the dead of Willow Rosenberg, I call upon you for a trial, I would do anything to bring her back!" Willow was shocked to recognize the voice of Buffy.

"It seems witch, that someone is willing to pay a high price to see you live." Osiris whispered to Willow. Osiris continued in a louder voice "You want to bring back the witch? You are willing to pay anything? Let's see what you are willing to pay!"

"What is going on?" Willow asked, getting worried.

"It seems Buffy called upon the trials, not even the Powers That Be can interrupt now." Tara answered. Willow did not like the sound of that one bit. "The only thing we can do now is watch." Tara continued.

At that moment Buffy appeared on the clearing. Osiris was watching, an evil smile on his face. "You invoked the trials slayer, follow me and we shall begin." Osiris said to Buffy.

"Fine by me, let's get this over with." Buffy said, no fear showing in her voice.

Willow tried to get Buffy's attention, but she did not seem to see her.

"We better follow, Buffy can not see you at the moment, she is alive, and you are not. One of the rules." Tara whispered in Willow's ear.

"Stupid rules." Willow whispered back.

They followed Osiris into a big arena. Osiris pointed Willow and Tara towards a balcony from which they could clearly see and hear what was happening in the arena.

"Okay, what am I supposed to do now? I asked for a trial, not a fight." Buffy said, clearly surprised.

"You asked for a trial slayer, you will receive three. In these three trials you will prove to me that Willow should live, and show me what price you are willing to pay." Osiris said.

On the far end of the arena a gate opened and a huge blue humanoid looking demon, at least 20 feet tall, with a sword at least twice as big as Buffy walked out. "The first trial starts now." Osiris said with an evil smile on his face.

"O, that kind of trials." Buffy said taking a battle stance and looking towards the demon. Willow looked on worried.

"She is going to get herself killed!" Willow exclaimed.

"That is the idea sweetie." Tara said, looking on sadly. Willow did not know what Tara meant by that, but the idea that Buffy would die for her was almost to much. And then the beating began. That is to say the beating of Buffy.

Whatever Buffy did to the demon it had no effect at all, no matter what she did, kick, throw a spear that was lying on the ground, bite, throw rocks, nothing had effect on it, the only thing Buffy succeeded in was hurting herself. And then with one swing his arm the demon would throw Buffy away, not even using his sword, which could easily cleave Buffy in two if she was not careful.

The fight went on for minutes, or hours, Willow did not know how Buffy was able to hold out, but she was tiring quickly, and she was getting more bruised and beaten up. The demon seemed happy to toy with Buffy since he had not used the sword much at all. But it would only be time when the demon would swing it and Buffy would not be able to dodge it.

At long last Buffy seemed at the end of her tether, and only narrowly avoided the sword. At the moment she was hiding behind a big rock nearly collapsing of fatigue and looking like she wanted nothing but to die right there.

Willow wanted to cry out that she should keep on fighting, that she should keep on living, for her.

At that moment Buffy stood up with sudden strength and speed, she jumped towards the demon. The demon swung his sword while Buffy was running towards him. What possessed Buffy to try it, Willow never knew, but Buffy started climbing in the demon. The demon tried to shake Buffy of, but Buffy clung on and climbed higher. The demon tried to use his sword once again and a moment later the sword was pointing out of his back.

Uncomprehending of what had happened the demon fell to the ground dead.

"Clumsy, such large swords." Buffy quipped.

"You passed the first trial. Let the second trial begin." the voice of Osiris announced.

The arena transformed into a field of hot coals in which Buffy was standing on the only piece of ground that was not covered in hot coals.

"What is the meaning of this?" Buffy asked.

"Easy, you have to go trough the door." Osiris said, and pointed to a door at the other end of the arena.

Willow thought this would be the end of it, now way was Buffy going to go trough all that pain to give her life. Not that Willow minded at all, if Buffy failed, it meant she got to be with Tara, not such a bad prospect, all in all. The only question was would Buffy live if she failed?. Or if she would join her. And that was not something Willow wanted to consider.

Buffy seemed to be taking some deep breaths and then took of quickly towards the door. As soon as Buffy stepped on the coals Willow could smell burning leather and burned skin. The smell made her sick. As fate would have it Buffy tripped halfway trough and fell flat on her face in the coals. The screams of Buffy echoed trough the arena and Willow tried to turn away, but found she couldn't.

Once again Willow wished Buffy did not have to do this, that she would just live, for her.

Again Buffy put on some kind of last reserve of strength, she jumped up and sprinted the last few feet to the door where there was a small patch clear of coals. Only she found the door locked. And resistant to her slayer strength.

Willow saw a pedestal in the middle of the arena which contained the key, and wanted to shout this to Buffy. But Buffy seemed to see it at the same time. At this sight Buffy sagged and sat on the ground and started crying.

"Do you give up slayer?" Osiris called.

Buffy looked up and she looked almost helpless.

"Then you will never see your witch again." Osiris called over.

At this Buffy got a determined look in her face. She stood up and sprinted towards the middle without tripping this time, picked up the key which happened to lie in a bowl of coals, and ran back to the door. Her feet and hands where badly burned by now, while the rest of her clothes where scorched to her skin, and her face was full of blisters.

As soon as Buffy opened the door the scene changed again. Willow looked around to see where Buffy was, and found that Buffy was bound to a chair, a sharp sword was sitting at neck height ready to swing towards Buffy.

Miraculously all wounds gained during the previous trials where healed. But Willow did not see how Buffy was going to get out of this one.

"The third trial slayer. There is only one way forward, and that is if that sword hits the chair. You can't get out of it." Osiris said. To show her he activated the sword but quickly deactivated it again, causing the sword to spring forward and backward a bit.

"Only problem is, I can't continue the trial without your consent slayer. Either you let me go on, or you can go back to the living." Osiris said.

So this was to be the true test, a life for a life. Willow looked on with a worried face, she wanted to shout no, she wanted to beg Buffy to go back to the living, to leave her here. But she knew Buffy could not hear her.

Seconds stretched into minutes, minutes stretched into hours, and still Buffy had not answered. Or at least it seemed so to Willow. Then with the determination in her eyes Buffy said "Do it, a life for a life, so be it."

Then Osiris activated the sword, Willow wanted to scream no, wanted to rush forward to stop the sword from reaching Buffy's neck. The sword seemed to go in slow motion as Willow watched helpless how Buffy's life would be traded for hers. Did she not get any say in this?

Just before the sword was to hit Buffy's neck Willow could not take it anymore and she shouted "STOP!". To her surprise the sword stopped. Buffy, Osiris and Tara where all looking to Willow.

"The cost is to high, I will go on, the price is to high, I can't pay it." Willow said pleading.

"The price is paid, you do not have the power to intervene now!" Osiris yelled. And to Willow's horror the sword continued, but instead of beheading Buffy, it disappeared at the very last moment.

"Am I dead now?" Buffy asked with an uncertain tone in her voice.

"No, but your dead will come to you sooner or later, you won the life of the witch." Osiris said.

"And what if I refuse?" Willow asked, not willing to loose Tara for the second time.

"Buffy needs you Willow, she needs you more then I need you. Go back with her, we will meet again." Tara whispered to Willow.

Willow wanted to turn around and see Tara for the last time, but then Buffy grabbed her arm, she had a pleading look in her eyes, so Willow nodded. Without looking back, Buffy and Willow walked back towards the lands of the living.

* * *

When Willow next opened her eyes she was lying on a bed. On the bed next to her lay Buffy. And on a chair next to the bed Buffy was lying on, Dawn was sitting, fast asleep.

When Willow turned her head to examine the rest of the room a voice spoke up.

"Well, it is about time the two of you woke up, we where already planning the funeral." the voice turned out to belong to Kennedy.

"How long have we been out?" Buffy asked. That was the same question Willow wanted to ask.

"A week." a second voice called out, this voice belonged to Satsu.

"A week? What happened in that week?" Willow asked.

"Nothing much, Dawn hasn't left your side, she eats and sleeps in here, Kate often leaves the house to Goddess knows where. Sam and Melaka are out 'patrolling' every night. Things have actually been very quiet lately." Kennedy answered.

"I'm glad the two of you are back with us." Satsu said.

"Yeah, me too." Willow said without real conviction. She wondered once again why Buffy couldn't let her be. But then she realized with a jolt that she had done the same to Buffy all those years ago. _Payback is a bitch_, Willow thought.


	19. Fountain of Time

**Chapter 18: Fountain of Time  
**_5th of October 2010, 10:00 PM, Purgatory_

Tara watched with a sad smile as Buffy and Willow moved back to the land of the living. She was happy for Willow, that she had a second change for happiness, a change she never got. The only problem was that Tara suspected what was to come, if the powers where to be believed.

"The dye has been cast, the witch will suffer." Osiris said, Tara had almost forgotten he was there.

"I'm still going to report you Osiris, you have not heard the last of this!" Tara said annoyed. Osiris looked at Tara and shrugged before walking away into the distance.

"He is right you know." a new voice said. Tara turned around and saw a black-haired woman dressed in white like her walking towards her.

"Cordelia." Tara said in a respectful voice. Cordelia was one of the higher ups in the Powers that Be.

"There is not much we can do against Osiris, he does as he pleases." Cordelia continued as though Tara had not spoken.

"Is that all we can do? Watch?" Tara asked, getting a bit annoyed.

"Funny thing, I accused the Powers that Be of doing that quite often." Cordelia said with a smile. "But the longer you work for them as I have, you start to learn that everything happens for a reason, I know, it sounds corny." Cordelia continued.

"Right, and we just let it happen?" Tara asked.

"If it comes to the slayer? Yes, we don't have jurisdiction in that area, the slayer does what she wants, we just clean up any collateral damage. Our concern is about Angel, and in a lesser extent Spike. Vampires with a soul, champions." Cordelia said.

"Yes, and we do such a great job in that area." Tara said sarcastically.

"We guide, it is up to them to listen." Cordelia countered. Tara found that all well, but wanted to know the answer to one question, but before she could ask it, Cordelia continued. "But now the time has come for us to intervene in slayer business, for what she faces concerns us greatly."

"Why?" Tara asked, she did not know if it was better for them to stay out of Buffy's life, then to intervene in it.

"I'll show you, follow me." Cordelia said while walking away.

Tara followed Cordelia to a fountain that was not there before, but that was how it worked here, you where everywhere and nowhere.

The fountain was clattering in a lake, but where the fountain hit the lake was not the only place of the lake that was moving, everywhere there seemed to be ripples moving across the surface.

"Normally this lake is completely still, only the fountain disturbing it, adding to it's depths." Cordelia said. Tara looked again, and could not see that the lake would ever be still, or ever was.

"What is this fountain?" Tara asked

"This is the Fountain of Time." Cordelia answered. _The What? _Tara wanted to ask "Each drop that lands from the fountain in the lake represents a new event taking place in the world as we know it, as time goes on, the lake get's fuller, never overflowing." Cordelia continued.

"What is the purpose of the fountain?" Tara asked.

"In here the Powers look at the different possibility's of the future, different time-lines, different outcomes of several prophesies." Cordelia answered.

"Why is it so restless now?" Tara asked, guessing the answer couldn't be good.

"The ripples represent changes in the past, small changes are easy to absorb into the original time-line, but now the changes are happening everywhere, big changes that are not as easy to adopt to. If this continues the ripples will become whirlpools, sucking everything away, beginning with the fountain, beginning with us. In short, time will end." Cordelia said.

"And what does this have to do with Buffy?" Tara asked, trying to get to the point.

"Buffy? Nothing. It has everything to do with the Children of Twilight." Cordelia answered.

"So everything to do with Buffy." Tara concluded.

"Quiet, I'm trying to explain!" Cordelia said annoyed. Tara had a lot of things she wanted to say to that, but remained quiet.

"But you are right, Buffy can end it, her death can end it." Cordelia continued Tara's head was spinning, _Buffy's death?_

"Her resurrection by you and Willow threw the universe of balance, you paid the price in dead. The first evil tried to use the unbalance to gain power, but failed. The world was further thrown off-balance by the calling of all the slayers and Twilight came, and Xander paid the price for that. The longer Buffy lives, the longer the universe will remain off-balance." Cordelia concluded.

"So we are just going to assassinate Buffy?" Tara asked shocked.

"No, it will not be that easy. To rectify the balance, Buffy must die at the hand of the one who brought her back to begin with." Cordelia stated.

"Willow." Tara said with trepidation.

"Yes, only such an act of betrayal will shock the universe big enough that it will right itself." Cordelia said.

"And what does this have to do with the fountain of time?" Tara asked, still confused where that came in.

"Once there is balance, then that problem will solve itself." Cordelia said.

"I don't like this, I don't like this at all." Tara said, shaking her head. "Is there nothing we can do?" Tara asked worried.

"There is something we can do, Buffy already knows the status quo, she will witness this conversation in a dream. But we might want to force Willow's hand in this." Cordelia said.

"How?" Tara asked, really not liking it.

"We introduce our own pawn into the scoobies." Cordelia said. Tara really did not like where this was going.

"Who? Me?" Tara asked, she did not know how she should feel about it if it was true, she got to see Willow again, but to convince Willow to murder Buffy? That went a bit far.

"No, not you, Xander." Cordelia answered. _Xander?_ Tara asked herself.

"Xander? Isn't he dust now?" Tara asked.

"Yes, one of the changes made in the time-line already. In other time-lines Xander was ensouled, the result was that Willow ended up killing Buffy. In any time-lines Xander was dusted that action came later, or never. Throwing the universe into chaos and ending time." Cordelia answered.

"So we change time?" Tara asked, liking the plan even less now.

"No, we resurrect Xander, there is a ritual that can bring back a vampire as a human with a soul. It has been previously used on Darla by Wolfram and Hart." Cordelia said.

"So we are going to use methods of the enemy to our own gains now?" Tara said annoyed with the plan.

"Not we Tara, you." Cordelia said.

"Me?" Tara asked surprised, she was not going to go along with such a plan.

"Yes, you. No one among the powers have time with what is happening in LA, and you are already versed in the workings of the scoobies, so yes, you." Cordelia said. Tara wanted to protest more, but Cordelia continued before she could. "If you don't, then time will certainly end!" Tara saw she had no choice but do this, but on the up side she would see Willow again.

Tara nodded her head and turned to leave. "Remember Tara, only show yourself to Xander, the others can't see you, or you are off this assignment quicker then you can say 'love'!" Cordelia warned.

"But Buffy, she hears us now right?" Tara asked, remembering what Cordelia said earlier.

"No, Buffy woke up before I mentioned her knowing." Cordelia said. _Well, that certainly makes it harder._ Tara thought. "She does not know you are send, she does not know Xander will come back, she does not know his role. And she shouldn't!" Cordelia continued.

"What should I tell Xander? And where should I hold the ritual?" Tara asked, just remembering that she did not know these specifics.

"As we speak Xander is already being resurrected by the Powers. That is the only thing we do for you. As for what to tell Xander, tell him nothing, but guide him through his guilt." Cordelia said.

_His Guilt? _Tara wanted to ask, but before she could she felt as though she was being pulled apart and her vision went black.

When Tara regained consciousness she heard an annoyed voice say "Will someone explain what the hell just happened?" Looking around she saw a black-haired boy with an eye patch looking straight at her.


	20. Returned

**Chapter 19: Returned  
**_6th of October 2010, 9:00 AM, Former seat of the Vampire King, Manhattan, New York_

Pain, that is what Xander felt, that was what he deserved, and he knew it. Pain was all Xander knew, it was what he lived. If you where alive in Hell.

How long Xander was there he did not know, did not care, he deserved every second of it. And he knew it.

The pain always came in the form of heat, unbearable heat, such heat that Xander's very soul was on fire, which it probably was. It never went away, it was always there, he never got used to it.

Until it stopped. The heat was suddenly replaced by cold, unbearable cold, but it did not hurt, instead it consumed.

It took a while for Xander to realize that he was lying on a stone cold floor, naked. Looking around he found some clothes neatly folded. Clumsily Xander dressed himself and looked around, seeing someone appearing out of nowhere. Just then he realized that he was not in Hell anymore.

"Will someone explain what the hell just happened?" Xander exclaimed when the woman was fully materialized. With a jolt Xander recognized the woman as no other then Tara Maclay.

"Hello Xander." Tara said as in welcome. "You have just been saved from the fires of Hell by my superiors." Tara continued.

"And who do you work for? Wolfram and Hart?" Xander asked distrustful.

"Why is it that everyone asks me that? Do I look like I work there or something?" Tara said in an annoyed tone.

"Resurrecting people sounds like something they would do." Xander said with a shrug turning away from Tara.

"True, but no, I work for the Powers that Be." Tara said.

"That is rich." Xander said in a huff, seeing a stone on the ground, he picked it up and threw it to Tara. Tara not reacting in time was hit by the stone, or she would be if the stone did not go straight trough her.

"Powers that Be, eh? You got promoted? I know who you are, you are not Tara, you are the First Evil, just drop your facade already, it is not as though I can go anywhere." Xander said while he started pacing and getting more annoyed by the second.

"No, I'm not. I did not even know I was incorporeal, turns out I'm some sort of ghost." Tara said in an almost pleading tone.

"You can't play those tricks with me, I faced you before, I know all your tricks, so stop denying it already and tell me what you want!" Xander said now truly annoyed.

"Okay, think of me what you want Xander, but I assure you I am who I say I am. But this is not the place and time to discuss such things." Tara said and sat down before she continued.

"You are back because the world is on the brink of chaos. Time is about to end, and you are the only one who can stop that from happening." Tara continued.

Xander stopped pacing and gaped at Tara. "You want _me_ to go and stop an apocalypse? Isn't it your goal to start one? Or is this not one you had planned?" Xander said incredulously.

"Xander, I don't want this apocalypse to happen as much as you don't want it. Even if I was the First Evil. If time ends, the First Evil will not exist anymore either. But I'm not the First Evil. I'm an agent of the Powers that Be, and the Powers don't want time to end either." Tara said in a voice that said that Xander should not mention the First Evil again.

"Still the question stands, why me?" Xander asked. In his opinion there where probably a lot of people in a better position to stop apocalypses then he.

"You are in a unique position. You must return to Buffy and Willow, and help them in anyway you can." Tara said.

_Buffy and Willow?_ Xander thought. How could he ever face them after what he did? He would probably be killed on sight, _not that would be a bad thing _he thought as an afterthought.

"So you just resurrected me to throw me into the lions den?" Xander asked sarcastically.

"Lion's den?" Tara asked clearly confused.

"Okay, a little history lesson then, you remember that I was the Vampire King? You remember what I did to them?" Xander asked incredulously.

"Yes, I do. I believe I dealt with the tail end of that recently." Tara said looking pointedly at Xander.

"So you know that sending me to Buffy and Willow is equal to sending me into a lion's den." Xander said getting annoyed again.

"If you explain to them you have a soul and that you are human they will forgive you." Tara said full of confidence.

"No, they shouldn't forgive me, they should never forgive me. That is the last thing I deserve, their forgiveness." Xander nearly yelled.

"True, they probably won't. But they will hear you out and help you." Tara said in a calm voice.

"You don't understand Tara, I can't face them, I can't do that to them. You have no idea what I have done to them, no idea what I have put them trough. No idea what I did to... O god, Dawn!" Xander said and sagged on the ground. What had he done?

"I loved her, and I violated her in the worst way. She only remembers me as a monster, she will never forgive me for that." Xander continued miserably.

"you have done some horrible things in your vampire days yes, but that was not you, that was the demon inside of you." Tara said calmly.

"Is that the excuse Angel uses? Does that even work?" Xander asked, just realizing what a hard time he used to give Angel, but now he understood, understood completely what Angel must be going trough every day.

"You can't hope for forgiveness, words don't do much in this case. But actions can speak volumes. Pick up the good fight, Buffy and Willow will gladly help you." Tara said ignoring what Xander said. "In return I will help you, I will be your liaison to the Powers that Be. I will give you assignments within your power. At the moment you have to be there for Buffy and Willow." Tara continued.

"Alright" Xander said standing up and finally seeing where he was, and seeing he was exactly where he was when he got dusted. "I believe my car is just outside, if the slayers did not wreck it by now." Xander said.

Tara looked strangely at Xander at this, but did not comment.

When Xander came outside he saw that his car indeed had been wrecked, together with any other vehicles he had under his control when he was the vampire king. "Well, here ends my adventure, unless I walk all the way." Xander said hope failing.

"And that is why I'm here Xander." Tara said with a small smile while she put her hand on his shoulder. The feeling was strange and convinced Xander that Tara was not the First Evil. Her touch was soft and warm, but he was sure he would still go straight trough her if he moved.

The next moment Xander was standing at the old high school where Buffy and Willow used to work just three weeks ago. Reflecting on it Xander was amazed how much had changed in just three weeks.

"Do you have any other cool super powers?" Xander asked while he started walking trough the ruins towards the house of Buffy and Willow. A path he had often driven with his car the last four years.

"Many Xander, but I will only use them in dire circumstances, this is your party." Tara answered while she followed.

When Xander approached the house of Buffy and Willow he was having second and third thoughts. What was he going to say? What was he going to do? It was not to late to turn around and run. Steeling himself he rang the bell.


	21. A New Threat

**Chapter 20: A New Threat  
**_6th of October 2010, 9:00 AM, 140th avenue, Queens, New York_

Buffy was sitting at the table in the kitchen contemplating the dream she had last night. It was an unusual dream in that Buffy herself played no role in it. It was just a conversation between two people. Two people who should be dead, but that was not what had Buffy thinking.

It was what was said in the conversation that had Buffy thinking. She had to die, die by the hand of Willow, or Time would end. Or at least that is what Cordelia said.

Buffy knew she would have to talk to Willow about this, but she knew that Willow would just dismiss it, like she had dismissed her previous dreams. And that troubled Buffy.

The first dream Willow dismissed had already come true in some way. Buffy had killed Xander and in extension Willow. That she had brought Willow back did not matter in this. The dream had come true.

As Buffy was contemplating this when Willow came downstairs, she had a strange look on her face, as though she was calculating something.

"Morning Buffy" she said as she walked passed and went to get some coffee.

"How are you Willow?" Buffy asked, knowing that Willow probably was less then happy about what had happened to her.

"Alive." Willow answered curtly.

"And I guess that is the problem isn't it?" Buffy queried, knowing that she had to get to the bottom of this, if she wanted Willow truly back. The reaction to this was instantaneous.

"Yes Buffy, that is the problem! I'm alive, stuck here, while I could be with Tara as we speak! At peace you know? Away from all this!" Willow yelled with a dangerous look in her eyes. Buffy was glad they had not become black.

"I know." Buffy said sadly, remembering how she felt when Willow had pulled her from heaven.

"So that is it then Buffy? Revenge? I deny you your rest, so you deny me mine?" Willow asked shouting louder with every word.

Buffy winced with every word, every word was like a knife trough her chest. Now that Willow was back she realized that what she had done was wrong on so many levels.

"No Willow, that was not the reason. I was grieving, I did not think... I couldn't live without you." Buffy pleaded with Willow.

"So Willow, remember anything from the future?" a new voice asked. Kate had come downstairs while Willow had been yelling at Buffy. But Buffy knew that was the wrong thing to ask and wondered where Kate had learned tact.

"Kate not now! Is that all you care about? Some information?" Buffy asked jumping up. "I raised you better then that!" Buffy added as an afterthought.

"Funny mom, I don't remember you being there 200 years in the future!" Kate sniped back.

"Yes I remember everything, no I won't talk about it to you Kate." Willow said in a deadly voice.

Before Kate could retort Sam, Melaka and Dawn came down the stairs. "Ah, mom and Willow are awake, I thought I heard shouting." Sam quipped.

Before anyone else could answer the door bell rang. "Strange, who would ring the bell, everyone I know would either come trough the slayer base, or is here and has a key." Buffy said.

"I'll open it." Sam said and walked to the door and opened it. "Master Harold?" Sam asked.

"I'm sorry?" a very familiar voice said from the other side of the door. Buffy felt as though lightning had struck her. Willow had frozen in her action of putting her cup down. Dawn ran from the room as fast as she could and Kate looked confused.

"Oh, right, you look like someone I knew." Sam said apologetically.

"Okay, no problem, I was looking for Buffy and Willow." the voice said. At that moment Buffy regained the power of speech.

"Don't let him in!" Buffy yelled and sprinted to the door and just as she feared she saw Xander standing outside.

"Good to see you too Buffy." Xander said. His demeanor had greatly changed since the last time she saw him. Xander was wearing rags, it looked like he had gone trough Hell and back.

"I should stake you where you stand Xander." Buffy said treathingly.

"You should yes." Xander agreed. Much too quickly for Buffy's taste. "But it would make a bloody mess." Xander continued

"You mean a lot of dust right?" Buffy asked.

"Mom, open your eyes, if Xander was a vampire he should have been dust 100 times over already!" Sam exclaimed.

At Sam's words Buffy's brain finally caught up with what she was seeing, Xander was standing ragged and beaten in the full sunlight. "You are human?" Buffy asked incredulously.

"Some powers granted me a second change, the Powers that Be claimed to be those powers, but I don't know yet." Xander explained.

"Tara?" Willow asked from the door.

Xander looked like wanted to say something but seemed to think better of it.

"I don't know." Xander repeated, but he had a strange expression on his face.

"You know you can't just waltz in here and expect everything to be like it was." Willow said with a steel look in her eyes.

"I know, and I don't expect that." Xander retorted.

"Okay, so what do you want Xander?" Buffy asked intrigued.

"I want to help you in the fight we all know is coming." Xander said cryptically.

"Nice try mister, but we all know that there is no fight coming since Dawn dusted the biggest troublemaker in this city." Willow said now with steel in her voice. Buffy began to wonder why Willow was acting so icy towards Xander while she wanted him ensouled just a week ago.

"Mom? Giles wants to speak to all of us in the slayer base. Xander included." Kate's voice came from the direction of the basement before anyone could say anything else.

"Okay, let's go, follow us Xander." Buffy said, having no other choice she walked inside towards the basement.

To Buffy's pleasure Xander followed while not being invited in the house by anyone, once again confirming Xander's status as not a vampire.

In the slayer base Satsu and Kennedy where already in the control room sitting across a screen on which Giles was already present.

"Ah, Buffy, Willow and ah, Xander." Giles said while taking off his glasses and cleaning them.

"You wanted to speak to us Giles?" Buffy asked impatient. Not taking notice of any of the other occupants.

"Ah, yes, I researched a couple of prophesies concerning the Children of Twilight. None of them are good." Giles began.

"Meaning?" Sam asked.

"Meaning, that all prophesies concerning the Children of Twilight talk about 'the end of time'" Giles answered.

"And I take it that is not something we want happening?" Xander asked.

"No it is not." Kate answered in a somewhat annoyed tone. "I'm familiar with those prophesies Giles, but whatever they say it is not true. It is not my intention, nor is it Sam's to throw this world into chaos, or to end all time like all those prophesies say we will do." Kate continued before anyone could interrupt.

"Then what may I ask is your intention?" Giles asked warily.

"Our goal here is to make sure that the future we came from does not come to pass! Any fool knows that!" Kate said truly annoyed now.

Buffy stared warily at Kate, Sam looked like he wanted to disagree. Melaka looked like she wanted to continue the argument Buffy interrupted a week ago and Willow looked like Kate had thrown her a life line. For whatever reason Xander looked slightly alarmed.

"Okay, just make sure that on every step you look closely at the consequences and don't throw the world into chaos in the progress. Trying to change a future you know might bring that future here faster." Giles said in a warning tone.

Sam nodded affirmative, Kate however seemed unconcerned.

"Did you have more to discuss, or did you call us all down here to reprimand me?" Kate asked still annoyed.

"Kate calm yourself! Giles, get to the point!" Buffy said trying to defuse the situation. Kate just huffed and turned away. But Giles once again cleaned his glasses before he began talking.

"Due to recent events and stress on the time-line the barriers between the dimensions have been weakening. It seems that Melaka's esteemed brother is trying to use this weakness to bring the Old Ones back." Giles said.

"And this is my fault is it?" Kate asked scathingly.

"Giles did not say that Kate!" Sam retorted.

"He is at it again then." Melaka said resigned to the worst.

"Any ideas how Harth is going to do this? Where Harth is and how we stop him?" Buffy asked

"Alas no, we have no idea how or when Harth is going to execute this plan, or how to stop him. I just wanted to put you guys on red alert, that we can expect trouble in the near future. And that you are going to need all the help you can get." Giles said looking from Sam and Kate, to Melaka, to Kennedy and Satsu, to Xander.

"Thanks Giles, let us know when you know anything more." Buffy said while sagging in a chair. Just when she thought it was all over, bigger trouble came. It was going to be a long day.


	22. Friend of my Sister

_**Part 5: Family**_

**Chapter 21: Friend of my Sister  
**_6th of October 2010, 9:30 AM, 140th avenue, Queens, New York_

When Dawn heard his voice from outside, she ran. Not because she was afraid of confrontation, but to get her crossbow so she could finish the job she apparently had not done properly. The last time she had heard that voice it was taunting Willow, and Dawn had put an end to that voice forever. Or so she had thought.

That same afternoon Dawn had wondered about a boy who had the same face in some photo's she had. Willow had not been very forward about who it was, it surely was not the same person right? Later that evening Kate had come and done some magic on her, she seemed to just confirm something. That was when the headache began. Often Dawn would have a big headache. It was only later that she found out that it came due to the talking machine she had. Since then she had not used it often, and the headaches stayed absent as long as she did not use the machine.

But now Dawn was on a mission, a mission to find a crossbow and kill Xander, that was what people called him anyway. His voice brought back memories Dawn had worked hard the past two weeks to just forget. Memories of a knife, whip and hands that hurt her everywhere. She thought that killing the Vampire King would put it to rest, but now it all came back.

Grabbing her crossbow Dawn went back downstairs, but found the house empty. She ran outside and took no notice of the sun shining on her face, running trough the neighborhood looking for Xander, or any other vampire. It took a while before Dawn's senses caught up with her, and she realized it was broad daylight. At that moment she wanted to shout out to the world, but couldn't.

Defeated she went back home and once there found Xander coming out of the basement. Immediately she aimed her crossbow at him and fired. Xander saw it coming and dived quickly out of the way. The bolt came to rest in the wall just where Xander's head had been moments before.

"Hello to you too, Dawn." Xander said, standing up with his hands raised. Dawn reloaded her crossbow and aimed it at Xander again, this time not firing. At this moment Dawn wished she had brought her talking machine downstairs, but instead she raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"Going to kill me?" Xander asked, eying the crossbow in Dawn's hands. "I probably deserve it." He continued after a couple of moments of silence.

Dawn fired again the taunt still ringing in her head, again Xander was able to dodge it. And this time the bolt hit a vase just behind Xander. Again Dawn reloaded her crossbow and aimed it at Xander who was again standing with his hands still in the air. Where Xander had learned to dodge like that she had no idea.

"Can we at least try to talk about it like civilized adults?" Xander asked with a tone of fear in his voice. As answer Dawn fired the crossbow again, and again Xander dodged it. This time the bolt went out the window, breaking it. Dawn reloaded the crossbow again and aimed it at Xander, who was once again standing with his hands in the air.

Before Xander could say anything, or Dawn could fire another bolt Buffy's voice came from the direction of the slayer base. "I don't think it was a good idea to have Xander go up into the house on his own, we just don't know how Dawn might react to him.".

"I think we just found out how Dawn might react to him." Willow said while Buffy, Kate, Sam, Melaka and Willow came into the living room.

Both Xander and Dawn turned towards the new comers, but she still had the crossbow aimed towards Xander.

"What is going on here?" Buffy asked eyebrows raised in question.

"You're sister has been firing crossbow bolts at me and I have no idea why." Xander said, before dodging out of the way of yet another crossbow bolt, that Dawn had fired at him. This time it hit the grandfather clock standing in the corner.

"Really Xander? No idea?" Buffy asked coldly while Dawn reloaded her crossbow.

"Okay, okay, so I have an idea." Xander said while he again stood up with his hands in still in the air.

"It is time for a game of truth and lies Xander. Tell us the truth and you might get out of this alive. Lie and Dawn will fire another bolt at you." Buffy said coolly.

"Okay, what are the questions?" Xander asked, fear coming trough in his voice.

"Why did you do what you did to Dawn?" Buffy asked.

At this question Xander visibly gulped. Dawn tightened her grip on the crossbow, she wanted to bolt from the room while at the same time she wanted to know the answer to the question.

"When you where captured Dawn, it was my intention to use you against Buffy, to break her and make her beg for death before the end. While waiting for Buffy to react I decided to have some 'fun'" Xander replied in a sad tone. Willow made to react but was silenced by a look from Buffy.

"When the next day news came that you broke one of my laws Buffy, I decided to go on on our deal, as soon as you broke one of my rules, I would take the kids. I decided to give something back to you as a trade for the kids. And to hide my identity I had to change Dawn's memory. Amy did that for me." Xander continued.

"You gave me back something broken." Buffy said in an accusing tone. Dawn raised her eyebrows at this, she was not just some object to be given and taken at will.

"It is used to break a person who has lost everything, give her back something broken." Kate said in a disgusted tone.

"And here we are talking about Dawn as tough she is an object to take and give? With her in the room even?" Sam said equally disgusted.

"I agree with Sam on this, I might have used Dawn in this manner, but I truly regret it now." Xander said in that same sad tone.

"You can't just come in here and expect everything to be okay with just a 'sorry' Xander!" Willow said coolly.

"Okay, next question, what where you doing on top of the Lex building when Sam, Kate and Melaka came?" Buffy asked ignoring the discussion that had broken out.

"I had heard from Amy about the two of you Buffy and Willow being stuck in a building and that a portal had been opened there. When Amy picked up similar magical signals I went out myself to investigate." Xander answered simply.

"Amy? So she was working for you?" Willow asked incredulously.

"Yes, She has been very helpful to me. It was mostly thanks to her that I had so much success controlling the vampires in the city." Xander answered.

"You talked to Dark Willow, what did she say to you?" Buffy asked, this seemed to be the question she wanted to ask most. Dawn did not find it very interesting, she did not understand most of what happened with Dark Willow.

"Yes, I talked to her, she told me that the future is set in stone, she told me I would fail." Xander answered.

"Is that all?" Buffy asked, as though she did not want to believe it. At this Xander looked away as tough considering what to say next, as tough fearing for his life.

"She said that the Children of Twilight will cause the end of time." Xander said carefully. At this Buffy looked down, Sam looked thoughtful, Kate looked scandalized while Willow shook her head. Melaka merely looked confused. Dawn did not know what to think about it. The end of time?

"We heard that one before." Kate said annoyed.

"Did she mention how we 'end time'?" Sam asked with trepidation in his voice.

"Something about your attempts not working, she would not elaborate." Xander answered.

"Okay, time for the one million dollar question, how and why are you back here?" Buffy asked. Dawn again tightened the grip on her crossbow, while everyone else snapped his or her attention to Xander.

"I'm back thanks to the 'Powers that Be', or at least they claim to be responsible. As to why I'm back, I'm here to help you stop the coming apocalypse. It turns out to help stop Harth." Xander answered. Dawn was a bit lost, when did Harth enter the story?

"Okay, the coming apocalypse, did the 'Powers that Be' gave you any directions on how to stop it?" Buffy asked.

"They said you already know the answer to that, I have not been told how or what." Xander answered. Buffy looked towards Willow, while she looked away. Dawn wondered about this interaction.

"That is it? That is how it is going to end?" Willow asked incredulously.

"It would seem so Willow, we both know what must happen." Buffy answered sadly.

"For us lesser mortals, what is going on?" Melaka asked in a confused tone. Buffy looked around at the gathered people and sighed.

"Dawn, can you lower the crossbow? Xander is our ally now, I don't trust him, but he might come in useful." Buffy said. Dawn looked around and reluctantly lowered the crossbow and sagged on the couch.

Everyone else also sat down on couches around the room, before Buffy addressed Melaka's question.

"Yesterday I had a dream, in this dream Tara and Cordelia where discussing the end of time. In this dream they talked mainly about Willow and me, and how the imbalance in the universe will cause it to happen. The only solution they came up with was that Willow had to kill me." Buffy said. A stunned silence met this explanation. Dawn did not know what to think of this. She just hoped there was another solution.

"I was hoping that you Xander had another option to stop it all." Buffy continued sadly.

"Buffy, whatever happens, we will find a solution to this. I will not kill you, I said so before, I will say so now." Willow said with conviction in her voice.

"This apocalypse is coming cause there is a lot of pressure on the barriers between dimensions right? That is what Giles said. What if we strengthen them? Make sure they cannot be broken?" Kate queried. Dawn thought this sounded logical.

"Tara and Cordelia said that only a 'big act of betrayal' would right the universe, or strengthen the barriers" Buffy said sadly.

"Then we find another way to strengthen the barriers!" Kate said with such conviction that further argument seemed pointless. "I'll go find something now." Kate continued while she got up and moved to her room.

Dawn held up her crossbow and waved it, before she moved to her own room to put it away. She might not like it, but she would tolerate Xander till all this was over, then she might come back on her decision to kill him.


	23. Daughter of Twilight

**Chapter 22: Daughter of Twilight**

_6th of October 2010, 10:30 AM, 140th avenue, Queens, New York_

_Willow must kill Buffy_ This line was running trough Kate's head like a mantra while she was moving to her room. She knew this was not allowed to happen. This was the one event she had to prevent, the reason she had traveled back in time, the reason Willow had turned dark, the reason the future was in such shambles.

_Willow must kill Buffy._ _NO_ Kate thought to herself, she was going to find another solution, one where her mother would not end up dead by her best friends hand. The solution she came up with downstairs was a simple one, strengthen the barriers, prevent the apocalypse. But then there was the whole 'end of time' issue people kept talking about. But Kate did not believe in that, how did time 'end' anyway?

When Kate entered her room she was not surprised to see aunt Maddy waiting for her.

"Ah, Katherine, how are things going?" aunt Maddy asked. Kate scowled at aunt Maddy, she hated it when she was called 'Katherine'.

"A lot happened, Buffy and Willow are awake and alive, and Xander showed up." Kate said.

"Xander?" aunt Maddy said clearly surprised.

"Yeah, the Powers that Be intervened." Kate answered, wondering if that was bad or not.

"I see, well, nothing we can do about that now." aunt Maddy said.

"Is it a bad thing that Xander is back?" Kate asked worried.

"No, no, not bad, just surprising." aunt Maddy said, but Kate had the impression that aunt Maddy thought it was bad, but she could not see why.

"We found out that Harth is trying to bring back the Old Ones." Kate continued, shrugging away aunt Maddy's strange reaction to Xander.

At this a strange look came in aunt Maddy's eyes, but it was gone the next second.

"The Old Ones? How is he going to do that?" aunt Maddy asked clearly surprised.

"Something about the barriers between the dimensions being weak." Kate answered.

"I see." aunt Maddy said in a thoughtful voice.

"The solution the Powers that Be came up with was that Buffy had to kill Willow, but that is not an option I want to take." Kate said, hoping that aunt Maddy had another solution.

"That might work, but indeed, not an option for us." aunt Maddy said, confirming Kate's thoughts.

"There must be a way to strengthen the barriers such that Harth's attempts will come to nothing right?" Kate asked in a pleading tone. She really hoped aunt Maddy would know something, cause so far Kate had come up with nothing.

"Yes, there is a way, we can use Dawn's blood, she is the key that holds it together, so using her blood in a ritual to strengthen the barriers will make sure they are stronger then ever before." aunt Maddy explained.

That made a lot of sense to Kate, Dawn's blood was used ten years ago to weaken the barriers, it was only logical that Dawn's blood would be able to strengthen them.

"How much blood is needed?" Kate asked, as an afterthought, it would not do to get Dawn killed in the process.

"Not much, about 400ml would do, a human body can easily regenerate that amount of blood." aunt Maddy said.

"That is brilliant aunt Maddy! I'm gonna tell Sam the solution at once." Kate exclaimed, while she ran from her room back down to the living room.

When she approached the living room she saw that Xander was fixing the window while Buffy and Willow where discussing the coming apocalypse.

"Can it be done Willow?" Buffy asked just as Kate came in hearing distance.

"I don't know, it might be a loosing battle to always have to strengthen the barriers." Willow answered, there was sadness in her voice.

"We both know the solution to the problem." Buffy said, looking at Willow sadly.

"Yes, and I will not accept that solution till I have no other choice!" Willow said vehemently.

"I have another solution." Kate said at this point. When she spoke all eyes turned to her.

"You found another way to strengthen the barriers?" Willow asked with hope in her voice.

"We use Dawn's blood, it should be strong enough for the job." Kate answered. The reaction was not what Kate had expected. Instead of grabbing on the solution like she thought they would Xander, Buffy and Willow exchanged wary looks.

"Dawn's moment is long past Kate." Buffy said warily.

"She is the Key no longer, she could only be used at a specific time, that time was ten years ago." Willow added.

"Dawn's blood was used to weaken the barriers, not strengthen them." Xander added.

Kate could not believe how they could be so blind to the solution, why they tried to get around it all. "I assure you, Dawn's blood will strengthen the barriers!" Kate nearly shouted.

"You don't have a good track record of your spells doing something good Kate." Willow countered. Kate just stared daggers at her.

"Where's Sam?" Kate asked to change the subject, he at least would listen to what she had to say.

"In the slayer base with Melaka, trying to locate Harth." Buffy answered.

_Figures_ Kate thought. _Of course Sam would be looking for a fight._

"I will perform this ritual to strengthen the barriers with or without your consent!" Kate said while turning around and going back upstairs. "Just be careful!" she could hear Buffy say just before she arrived outside Dawns room.

Kate stopped and wondered if Dawn might cooperate with her idea, it was her blood she needed. Steeling her nerves she knocked on the door.

Dawn opened the door and seemed surprised to see Kate standing there, but motioned her in without much hesitation.

"I have been looking for a way to strengthen the barriers I was talking about downstairs." Kate began without much preamble. Dawn merely nodded, Kate noticed she was not holding her talking machine.

"It seems there is a ritual to strengthen them completely, but I will need some of your blood to do it." Kate continued. Dawn looked wary at this, and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"You're the Key, you're blood can be used to strengthen the barriers such that no one can ever break them again." Kate said. Dawn nodded her understanding, but still had a wary look on her face.

"I don't need much, about 400ml should do, you should not have any ill effects if I take such a small amount of blood." Kate said, guessing why Dawn looked wary.

After a couple of minutes of silence Dawn nodded and held out her arm. Kate grabbed a knife and a vial out of her witches bag she always had with her and made a small cut in her arm, took a little bit of blood and closed the cut with a wave of her hand.

"Thanks Dawn, you just saved the world." Kate said with wink, she could swear she heard a small chuckle from Dawn, but it turned quickly into a voiceless cough.

Kate left Dawn's room and went for her own room while she put a cork on the vial of Dawn's blood, so it would not be lost. Again she was not surprised to see aunt Maddy waiting for her.

"I have the blood." Kate said when she entered the room.

"Good. Now we can start the ritual." aunt Maddy said.

"How does this ritual work?" Kate asked, realizing she had no idea what the ritual involved.

"It has to be cast at a specific place, I have a friend who has already placed a beacon there, you know how to open a portal?" aunt Maddy asked.

Kate became a bit wary at this, yes she knew how to open a portal, but should she go trough alone?

"I know how to open the portal, I will just get some more people." Kate answered.

"There is not time for that!" aunt Maddy nearly shouted.

Kate was taken aback at this, but thought that aunt Maddy was right, Buffy, Willow and Xander would not help, Sam and Melaka where looking for Harth, and Kate wanted to keep Dawn as safe as possible, if she was going to do the ritual, she was on her own.

"Okay, I'll open the portal to the location, when I'm there are you going to explain the ritual to me?" Kate asked.

"Yes, once you are there I'll explain everything." aunt Maddy answered, a strange glint showing in her eyes.

Kate closed her eyes and concentrated on the magical flows. It was not long after she started that she located the beacon. She said "Portus" and a portal opened. Grabbing the vial of Dawn's blood and her witches bag she went trough the portal. The moment she stepped in the portal she lost consciousness.

Once Kate came to she realized she had walked straight into a trap. She noticed that she was bound in chains that stopped her magic and also noticed that she was no longer holding the vial with Dawn's blood or her witches bag. Close by aunt Maddy was standing with an evil smile on her face, next to her stood a vampire, non other then Harth Fray himself.

"You where right Amy, she would come to us." Harth said with an evil glint in his eyes.

"Even better, she brought us our key ingredient for the ritual." aunt Maddy said in a low tone.

"Yes, this blood has power." Harth said while smelling what Kate realized was the vial with Dawn's blood.

"I trusted you!" Kate said to aunt Maddy. Trying to make sense of the situation.

"Yes, you're trust was very easy to gain. I'm not your 'aunt Maddy', they call me Amy. You gave me all the tools I needed to gain your trust, all I had to do was feign amnesia." aunt Maddy said mockingly. _No, it is Amy_ Kate reminded herself.

"By the way, there is no spell that uses Dawn's blood to strengthen the barriers, this will be very useful to bring forth the Old Ones." Amy continued after a couple of seconds of deathly silence.

Kate panicked, she had walked into this with open eyes. She hoped that Buffy, Willow or Sam would be able to rescue her in time.

"There is one problem however, even with Dawn's blood Amy nor I have the power to do the ritual, I will need some more power." Harth said while advancing on Kate, she could now smell the breath of the vampire. "I will need your power!" Harth continued just before he plunged his teeth into Kate's exposed neck.


	24. Son of Twilight

**Chapter 23: Son of Twilight  
**_6th of October 2010, 11:30 AM, Slayer Base_

"This is useless!" Sam exclaimed after yet another sweep with the vampire detection hardware in the slayer base gave no results. For the last hour Melaka and Sam where trying every method known to slayers to locate Harth somewhere in New York. But so far they came up empty.

"Calm down, Sam. We will do another sweep tonight, you know you can't find vampires in broad daylight." Melaka said in a calming voice.

"Calm down? Calm down? If we don't find Harth soon, Willow might have to kill mom, I can't let that happen, I just can't!" Sam said panic flooding him.

"Yes, calm down, panicking is not going to find Harth, this equipment isn't going to find him either it seems." Melaka said calmly.

"Where are Kennedy and Satsu when you need them?" Sam asked looking around the slayer base, they where quite alone.

"They are out there looking for Harh, Sam." Melaka answered.

"Just like we should be out there!" Sam exclaimed, getting more agitated by the minute.

"We will, tonight, you and me, like we do every other night." Melaka answered. It was true, Melaka and Sam had gone out every night looking for signs of Harth so that Melaka could finally find the courage to finish him off.

"Sam, Melaka, are you two coming up for lunch?" a voice asked from the portal room. The voice turned out to belong to Buffy. Melaka took Buffy up on the offer at once and moved towards the portal room while Sam was looking after her.

Sam was lucky Melaka had no idea that the last week he only went with her to spend time with her. Not to look for Harth. But now he wanted Harth found even more then Melaka. Kate was looking for some way to strengthen the barriers, while Sam found it more practical to take out the threat directly, the threat being Harth.

Shaking his head Sam went after Melaka back to the house wondering if he ever would have the courage to tell Melaka how he truly felt about her. It was strange that he could face an army of vampires and demons without the slightest fear, but tell a girl how he truly felt, that was another business altogether.

Sam came in the kitchen and found it already made up for lunch. He noted that Kate was absent.

"Where's Kate?" Sam asked, as far as he knew Kate never missed lunch, unless she was doing some kind of complicated ritual.

"Up in her room, probably doing the ritual to strengthen the barriers. I felt some heavy magical activity from her room a couple of minutes ago" Willow answered indifferently.

"You think it will work?" Melaka asked while Sam sat down.

"Yes, Kate's spells have never gone awry yet." Sam answered while he was buttering a slice of bread.

"I mean, with the help of aunt Maddy her spells don't have much change of failing." Sam continued before taking a bite.

Everyone looked at Sam surprised after he said this. Sam wondered what he had said wrong.

"Aunt Maddy? Who's that?" Buffy asked with trepidation in her voice.

"Kate's teacher, she taught Kate everything she knows, she is a higher being now and has guided Kate ever since the fire in the coven." Sam answered, wondering why everyone looked wary.

"That was in the future right?" Xander asked.

"Yes." Sam answered, having no idea where Xander was going with this.

"Just like 'Master Harold' taught you how to fight?" Xander continued his line of questioning.

"Yes." Sam answered getting slightly annoyed.

"And Master Harold looked just like me right?" Xander asked now.

"Not exactly, but the two of you have a lot in common yes." Sam answered, getting wary.

"What if your 'aunt Maddy' looks exactly like someone from this time? Someone who can say astral project?" Xander asked. At this Sam felt a bit of panic, was aunt Maddy who she said she was?

"What are you getting at Xander?" Buffy asked warily.

"What I'm saying is that 'aunt Maddy' might be a higher being, but is she a higher being now? I don't think so since she does not even exist yet, correct?" Xander asked. Now Sam felt his panic increasing. Who was aunt Maddy?

"Can you describe 'aunt Maddy?' Sam?" Willow asked also warily.

"I have a photograph right here." Sam said rummaging in his pocket and taking out an old photograph of Sam, Kate, Mater Harold and aunt Maddy.

When Willow looked at the photo she visibly paled and showed it to Buffy who also paled.

"What is the problem?" Sam asked worried, whatever it was it was bad.

When Xander saw the photo he swore loudly.

"Whatever spell Kate is performing, it is not a spell to strengthen the barriers! This woman looks exactly like Amy." Xander said in an urgent tone.

"Amy? Isn't that the witch who helped you Xander?" Sam asked the panic rising again.

"Yes, and she is very obsessed with the Old Ones." Xander said getting up.

At this everyone jumped up from the table Sam in the lead. They sprinted up the stairs to the room Kate shared with Sam. When they entered they found it empty.

"A spell was cast here." Willow said feeling around with her hands as though she was blind.

"What kind of spell?" Buffy asked in a nervous tone.

"A portal spell. Wherever Kate is performing the ritual, it is not here." Willow answered.

"What ritual is she performing?" Sam asked, extremely worried now.

"I don't know, she needed Dawn's blood for the ritual, thinking back on it that should have raised alarm bells." Willow answered.

"Can't you trace the portal to it's beacon?" Xander asked.

"I can try, but it will take time." Willow answered.

"Okay, you do that, while we will inform Giles of the new developments." Buffy said leaving the room and going towards the slayer base. Melaka, Dawn, Xander and Sam followed.

When Sam came down in the slayer base Buffy was already talking to Giles.

"You found the ritual Harth will use?" Buffy asked, with hope in her voice.

"Yes, I have found the ritual, what you described narrows it down considerably. Dawn's blood can only be used for one ritual, but it will need more power then Harth or Amy can muster, they will need a third magic user for it." Giles said.

"They need Kate." Sam said realization dawning on him.

"Yes, they need Kate in their circle." Giles concluded.

"Well, Kate is smart, she will realize something is wrong, she will not help them willingly, and she is a hard woman to break." Sam said, relaxing slightly. There was no way that Kate would help Harth and Amy with their spell once she realized the truth.

"Aren't we forgetting something?" Melaka asked her face pale.

"What?" Sam asked anxiously.

"Harth is a vampire, what will vampires do to get someone on their side?" Melaka asked, and then Sam felt all color fading from his face, would he turn Kate into a vampire? Sam hoped that that would not be the case.

"NO, Kate would never become a vampire!" Sam exclaimed.

"Fact, when nearly all your blood is drained, you are not thinking clearly anymore, and when there is blood trust down your throat spitting it out is not an option at that point." Xander said sadly.

"Then we find Harth and stop him before he can turn Kate into a vampire!" Sam said with such force that no one dared argue with him.

Sam sagged into a chair and felt drained. He hoped and prayed that Kate was still alive and well, that he would not have to kill Kate just as he had to kill master Harold. Why did he never take Melaka seriously till now? Why did he always have to kill the ones he loved? Sam did not have answers to these questions.

"Sam?" a voice near him said. Looking up he saw Melaka standing nearby.

"Melaka." Sam said acknowledging her presence.

"I know what you are going trough Sam, I went trough the same with Harth." Melaka said sadly.

Sam wanted to retort that she did not know a thing, but realized that this was exactly what Melaka must have gone trough when she lost Harth to the vampires.

"I'm here for you whenever you need me." Melaka continued in the same sad tone.

"You don't understand Melaka, Kate is my other half, my twin, for nineteen years it has always been Kate and Sam, but now I might have to kill her." Sam said dully.

"I do understand Sam, Harth was not just my brother, he was_,_I mean is my twin." Melaka said. Sam looked up at this, he had forgotten that little detail.

"Sorry, I forgot that he was your twin." Sam said trying to sound apologetic.

"It is alright Sam, now is not the time for you to be thinking clearly." Melaka answered while wrapping her arm around him. Sam leaned into her embrace staring blankly ahead, but taking comfort in the contact he had with Melaka.


	25. Dear Brother

**Chapter 24: Dear Brother  
**_11th of October, 9:00 PM, 140th avenue, Queens, New York_

It had been a week since Kate disappeared, there had been no trace of her or of Harth and Amy. All searches had come up empty. Sam had been inconsolable, and the tension at the house could be cut with a knife. Patrols where to quiet, and everyone was on edge, expecting the world to crumble around them at any moment. But so far nothing had happened.

No matter what Melaka tried, Sam had not come out of his room for the last four days, retreating back into himself. This evening was no different.

Melaka considered everything that had happened and felt a bit guilty, if she only had enough courage to give Harth the poke, then none of this would have happened. But the memories where to sharp, the happiness she had with Harth to profound. She did not know if she would ever have the strength to kill Harth. How does one kill his own twin brother?

Then Melaka remembered that there was a big change that Kate was a vampire, something she hoped for Sam's sake was not true. But then and there she promised that she would be there for Sam, whether he had the strength to kill Kate or not, she would always support him. Just as Sam had supported her when she had failed to kill Harth.

Willow had not stopped tracing the portal, but was unable to come to any conclusions. Magical sweeps looking for magical activity had turned up nothing. Melaka hoped Willow would pick up something soon, she did not know when Harth would put his plan into motion and hoped they would be in time to stop it.

"Come down to eat something Sam." Melaka said for the umpteenth time trough the door.

"Not hungry." came the answer. Melaka had brought Sam something to eat the whole week, but always tried to get him downstairs to eat, but he would not come out of his room.

"I'll get something to eat for you then." Melaka said while standing up and moving downstairs to the kitchen.

In the kitchen she saw Xander, Dawn and Buffy sitting at the table, Willow was probably searching for magical signals.

"Sam still won't come out of his room?" Buffy asked in a worried tone when Melaka came into the kitchen.

"No, I will just get him something to eat, as usual." Melaka answered sadly. Buffy nodded and looked down miserably. It must have been eating at her that she could do nothing to help her kids.

"Any news?" Melaka asked without real hope.

"No, nothing." Buffy answered in that same miserable voice.

"I checked my former seat, nothing there." Xander said shaking his head.

Melaka waited patiently while the pizza she had for Sam was in the oven. She was about to go back upstairs with the pizza when Willow came down the stairs in a hurry.

"I got contact! Harth has started the ritual, it will be done at midnight!" Willow shouted.

"Where?" Buffy said standing up in a hurry.

"Lex Building." Willow answered quickly.

"Melaka, get Sam and meet us in the slayer base pronto!" Buffy ordered. Melaka did not even think to disagree and hurried up the stairs, the pizza forgotten.

"Sam, get down now, Harth has started the ritual, we fight!" Melaka shouted trough the door.

At this the door quickly opened and Sam came hurrying out. He did not look good, but he looked determined. He already had his sword sheathed and his small hand ax on his belt.

Melaka quickly followed Sam down to the slayer base.

When Melaka arrived in the slayer base all screens where already on and Kennedy was shouting orders for the slayers to gather. Buffy however looked unbelieving at one screen on which Satsu was standing with a very worried expression on her face.

"What do you mean? We can't get close to the Lex building?" Buffy shouted.

"I don't have scouts in that area, the fastest we can get there is going by portal to the former seat of the vampire king." Satsu answered.

"It is a 36 minute walk from there to the Lex building." Kennedy said, while displaying the route on a map.

"And let me guess, the big mojo is going down on the roof?" Buffy asked exasperated.

"Yes." Willow said with a bit of panic in her voice.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Get a move on!" Buffy shouted.

Melaka was surprised how effectively the slayers could be called to attention. At Buffy's command at least 100 slayers moved trough the slayer base to the portal room. Melaka quickly grabbed the scythe replica she had received two weeks ago and followed, but Buffy held her back. "Melaka, I want you with the main group, together with Sam." Buffy said.

"Main group?" Melaka asked. Wondering what her plan was.

"Yes, Willow, Sam, Dawn, Xander, you and me are going a different route then the rest of the army." Buffy said with an odd twinkle in her eyes.

"Kennedy does not dare to open a portal so close to the ritual site, due to interference with the technology we use for that. However Willow does not have that limitation." Buffy continued smirking.

"I can open a portal close to the site, I know the Lex Building roof, there are quite a few positions where we can sneak up on them, I'm hoping to open a portal in such an area." Willow said just before she closed her eyes in concentration.

After what seemed like minutes Willow shouted out "Portus" and a portal appeared.

"Go trough, but be ready for anything!" Buffy warned.

"Moving trough this portal might be disorienting, if we arrive in the middle of them we won't be in a condition to fight." Willow cautioned. This where not things Melaka wanted to hear, but she was ready for anything.

The group moved quickly trough the portal, the moment Melaka entered the portal she felt as tough she had been clobbered on the head. When she opened her yes she saw that they all had arrived safely on an out of the way corner of the roof she knew so well. Buffy motioned for them to be quiet when she pointed to the same spot where previously multiple portals had appeared.

Sitting cross legged on that spot was Harth, chanting in some ancient tongue Melaka did not understand. Amy was holding his hands and sitting across from him, also chanting in the same language. Kate was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Kate?" Sam asked. Melaka wanted to know the same thing, but dreaded the answer.

"There is someone up there." Buffy said pointing to the building opposite them, they all could see a shadowy figure standing with it's arm's wide, but no one could make out the person's futures. It was hard to see if it was Kate or someone else. Melaka hoped that it was someone else.

"The barriers are failing, they will have the ritual complete before midnight if they keep going like this!" Willow warned. Just as Willow had said this a great rupture appeared in the air and demons the like Melaka had never seen came trough. They where to late.

"Get ready for the fight of your lives!" Buffy warned. Melaka nodded at this and charged towards Harth while Willow charged to Amy. Sam followed Melaka while Buffy launched herself at the demons. Xander and Dawn where both firing their crossbow into the mass of demons.

Harth looked up just in time and was able to roll out of the way, while Willow and Amy had jumped of the building and where fighting in mid-air. Magic crackling everywhere. Sam and Melaka meanwhile where circling Harth while he got out a ray-gun.

"Ah, Mel, I wondered when you would show up." Harth said mockingly.

"I came to finish you Harth!" Melaka said bravely while childhood memories threatened to overcome her. Sam however did not have that problem and charged to Harth, but Harth was to quick for him and dodged and shot his ray gun towards Melaka.

Melaka got out of her stupor quick enough to dodge and pull her own ray gun and fired it in the direction of Harth, but it missed. This dance of death continued for several minutes in which the slayers had finally arrived to help fight of the stream of demons still coming trough the crack in the air.

After a couple minutes of this one of Melaka's shots finally found their target and Harth was knocked back. Melaka took advantage of this and held her scythe to his chest.

"Going to kill me Mel?" Harth asked without any trace of fear in his voice. Again childhood memories threatened to overwhelm Melaka, but she steeled herself for what she had to do.

"Yes, I should have done this ages ago." Melaka said while bringing the scythe down hard. Harth, her twin brother disappeared forever in a cloud of dust.

Melaka sagged and started crying. She had finally done it. She had killed her own twin brother, she had finished it.

"And now start the waterworks." a mocking voice said from behind her. She felt herself being pulled up and felt something sharp held against her neck. She realized that it was a sharp nail. Melaka could not reach any of her weapons they had been dropped when she killed Harth.

"Kate!" Sam shouted from beside Melaka. she was roughly turned and looked into the fearful face of Sam.

"Ah, Samuel, how nice of you to join us." Kate said mockingly.

"So, they did turn you into a vampire." Sam said sadly.

"Yes, and it is glorious! The power I have now, it is better then I expected!" Kate said with triumph in her voice.

"The end of the world Kate?" Sam asked in horror looking towards the rift in the air.

"Not the end of the world Sam, the end of time. The only thing it takes now is one little death, and all will crumble." Kate said with menace in her voice while she quickly cut her nail across Melaka's abdomen. Before Melaka could yell out she was thrown on the ground, and surrounded by some magical force field, she was trapped and dying.

"Let's dance Samuel, let's dance till the end of time." Kate taunted while she got in a battle stance, Sam doing the same with something Melaka had never seen in his eyes before, pure fury. All Melaka could do was watch while she slowly bled to death.

"Which should be soon." Kate finished while Sam charged.


	26. The End of Time

**Chapter 25: The End of Time  
**_11th of October 2010, 11:30 AM, Lex Building, 53rd street, Manhattan, New York_

Buffy fought, the only time she ever had seen so many demons was in Sunnydale during the War of Twilight. From the corner of her eye she saw how Melaka dusted Harth and to her horror saw that Kate was able to sneak up to her. And she watched in horror when Sam charged her and the twins started to fight, a fight till the death.

At that moment Buffy knew what should happen next, what was coming. Quickly she went back to her fight with the horde of demons. She knew time was running out, literally. Only problem was, Willow was nowhere to be found. Looking around she spotted Xander next to Dawn using fighting moves that where not out of place on a slayer, but on Xander it just looked unbelievable.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Buffy asked Xander when she was close enough.

"You pick up a thing or two when you are a vampire." Xander answered, but Buffy had the feeling that was not the source of Xander's new found powers, but now was not the time to ponder that.

"Have you seen Willow?" Buffy asked over the din of the fighting.

"Last I saw her she was locked in battle with Amy." Xander answered pointing towards the edge of the building.

"Good, she has to finish it." Buffy said while looking at the slowly growing rift in the air trough which more and more demons came.

"So this is it? No other solutions?" Xander asked with a slight fear in his voice.

"I'm afraid not Xander, now excuse me, I need to get my killer." Buffy said with a small attempt at humor.

Just when Buffy got to the edge of the building Amy suddenly fell down to the ground and moved no more. "Willow!" Buffy shouted. Willow looked over at her and came over.

As soon as Willow landed Buffy trusted the scythe in her hands with a feeling of dread, but oddly determined.

"No!" Willow said trying to give the scythe back, apparently guessing what Buffy wanted.

"You don't have a choice anymore Willow! Look at what is happening! You have to finish it!" Buffy shouted, all fear leaving her now that the moment was close at hand.

"I can reverse the ritual!" Willow shouted back.

"No Willow! We both know how this ends! Do it!" Buffy shouted prostrating herself in front of Willow.

"No!" Willow said again but this time dropping the scythe to the ground. "I said this before I will say it again, I will not kill you!" Willow shouted while backing away.

Sighing Buffy picked up the scythe and charged to Willow picking her up from the ground. "You must Willow! Or all will be lost!" Buffy shouted in her face.

"I will reverse the ritual, then we will see what we do about the end of time." Willow countered.

At this Buffy dropped Willow. "Okay, you have one change to reverse this mess your way, after that we do this my way." Buffy said menacingly.

Willow moved to the place where Amy had been sitting a couple of hours before and started chanting. Buffy used the moment's peace to look around. The rift was still growing bigger, the fight between Sam and Kate was in full swing, neither of them having the upper hand, Melaka was lying on the ground getting weaker by the minute, but no one could get to her. Xander and Dawn where still fighting off the demons, and the slayers where helping in that field. But soon they would be overwhelmed.

"Willow!" Buffy shouted getting impatient.

"I can't control it!" Willow shouted, at that moment a second rift opened and a big tornado came out of it destroying all buildings it touched.

"End it!" Buffy shouted throwing the scythe to Willow.

Willow caught it and looked to it. Buffy wanted to shout again, but Willow turned to her with a look of fear on her face.

Buffy looked around and saw that a third rift had opened trough which even more demons came. The world was truly ending.

"Willow, now!" Buffy shouted. Willow looked around and got a shocked expression on her face which quickly changed into determination. Buffy looked around to see what got Willow so shocked and saw that Xander was about to be stabbed in the back by a demon and would never be able to react in time.

Without further hesitation Willow walked to Buffy and thrust the Scythe trough her body, and Buffy felt her life fleeing away from her.

Casting one last look around Buffy saw that Sam had managed to dust Kate and saw him running towards Melaka, the spell now broken. She also saw all demons disappearing the way they had come, the rifts closing. She saw Xander and Dawn joining Melaka. She also saw the slayers walking around taking care of the wounded and dead among them.

And then Buffy saw other images, images of her past. She saw her fight against the Master, how he had killed her, only to be saved by Xander. Saw herself together with Angel, and sending him to hell. She saw her fights with Faith and how she had plunged Faith's own weapon in her. She saw how Willow, Xander, Giles and she had joined forces to defeat Adam.

Buffy saw her mom lying dead on the couch. She saw herself die for Dawn to save the world, saw herself jump of the tower. She saw herself rising out of the grave, brought back by the hands of Willow. Saw herself together with Spike in her worst moments. Saw herself fighting against Dark Willow. She saw how she had shared her power with all other potentials. How they had beaten the First Evil.

Buffy saw herself killing Dark Willow in the future, and saw demons coming to the Seed of Wonder to steal it as a hearth for a new dimension she had created together with Angel. She saw Xander destroying said seed to end it all.

And now Buffy would be dying for the third and final time, her final peace. A peace she had longed to have for the last ten years. That longing had never gone fully away. But now finally it would come to her.

"Thanks." Buffy said softly, and all she knew after that was peace and quiet, she was done, she was complete.


	27. Epilogue: Fade Away

**Epilogue: Fade Away  
**_12th of October 2010, 3:00 AM, Lex Building, 53rd street, Manhattan, New York_

Sam took a big swing with his sword and cleanly beheaded Kate. He watched in horrible fascination as she turned to dust in front of his eyes, having no attention to anything that happened around him.

"Sam." a weak voice said from beside him, only then he remembered that Melaka was badly wounded. He rushed quickly to her side, trying to comfort her.

"We can fix this, you will live." Sam said feeling as though his entire life was in his arms. Melaka could not die, not now.

"No, Sam, it is over." Melaka said coughing. Sam was hard pressed to fight back tears, this could not be happening.

"It is not over if I have anything to say about it." Xander's voice came from somewhere nearby.

Sam looked up and saw Xander kneeling over Melaka while Dawn stood nearby, looking down on the scene. Xander muttered something and Melaka's wounds healed themselves.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" Sam asked amazed.

"You pick up a thing or two when you become a vampire." Xander answered, but Sam had the idea that he was not being completely truthful.

"Melaka is right, it is over." Willow's voice came from the direction of the edge of the roof. Only then did Sam notice that Willow was standing over Buffy's dead body, who was lying in a pool of her own blood. Willow's hands where covered in it while a bloodied scythe lay on the ground, forgotten.

Dawn pointed her crossbow at Willow, but Xander forced it back down. "She only did what was needed Dawn." Xander said in explanation of his actions, his voice sounding thick.

Willow and knelt down next to Melaka and looked down upon her.

"She will be fine, and so will the baby." Willow said in a sad tone. Silence met this statement. Sam tried to get his head around it, _Baby?_

"Baby?" Melaka asked with a bit of panic in her voice.

"You're pregnant sweetie." Willow answered while she shot a meaningful look towards Sam.

Willow picked something up from the ground, stood up and walked away from the scene while Sam was still trying to process what happened this night. After a couple of seconds he came to his senses and sprinted after Willow. "Willow wait!" he shouted.

Willow stopped and looked sadly towards Sam.

"What happens now?" Sam asked, hoping she had the answer.

"Now I am going away, where I don't know. I can't stay here. You have a funeral to prepare Sam, and Melaka needs you." Willow answered while looking down at her bloodied hands and the small statue she had picked up.

Sam looked back to Melaka and wondered what his life with her would be like. He also looked to Xander and once again wondered where he got his powers.

"Do you believe Xander learned to heal as a vampire?" Sam asked Willow.

"No, he has the help of a higher being, I suspect Tara, but I'm not sure." Willow answered with longing in her voice.

"What is that statue?" Sam asked looking at the little statue Willow was holding in her hands.

"Amy's mom, her old cheerleader's trophy, we trapped her in there 15 years ago." Willow answered also looking down at it.

"So you are going to wait 200 years for Buffy to kill you now?" Sam asked trying to sound sarcastic.

"I don't have another choice." Willow answered while looking to east where the sun would be coming up shortly.

"We failed didn't we?" Sam asked, dreading the answer.

"No, Kate failed, with all that happened in Buffy's life, there really could not have been another outcome." Willow answered.

"Kate failed, that means I failed her." Sam said. It was true somewhat, he could have told the others sooner about aunt Maddy, then it would have been clear sooner that she was truly Amy, but Kate wanted to keep her a secret.

"Failure is a strong word. Sometimes fate makes things hard for you, in those situations you just have to make the best of it." Willow said.

"Right, still talking in riddles." Sam said while trying to bring some humor in his voice.

"The sun is coming up, here is a new beginning. See you in 200 years Samuel." Willow said. At this she walked away. Sam stood there contemplating everything that she had said, and turned towards Melaka who at this point was kneeling next to Buffy's body.

Sighing he walked back towards the others thinking that yes, it would be a new beginning.

**The End**

**A/N  
****This is it, the end of the story, please tell me what you liked of this story, and what you didn't like, and why.**


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